Nawaz, Shahbaz under house arrest ahead of sit-in outside Parliament
Pakistan's main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif along with his brother Shahbaz was today placed under house arrest on the eve of a major anti-government sit-in outside Parliament tomorrow, plunging the country into a deeper political turmoil.
Pakistan's main opposition leader Nawaz Sharif along with his brother Shahbaz was today placed under house arrest on the eve of a major anti-government sit-in outside Parliament on Monday, plunging the country into a deeper political turmoil.
The government also issued orders for the detention of Jamaat-e-Islami chief Qazi Hussain Ahmed and cricket-turned- politician Imran Khan, the leader of Tehrik-e-Insaf party, both of whom are in hiding, local media reports said.
The two-time former Premier and PML-N chief Sharif was detained at his home at Model Town in Lahore while his brother Shahbaz, former Punjab Chief Minister, was held at the home of party leader Chaudhry Tanveer Khan in Rawalpindi near here.
TV channels reported that orders for house arrest had been served on both leaders. Sources were quoted by the channels as saying that the detention orders were issued under the Maintenance of Public Order law, restricting the movements of the PML-N leaders for three days.
The capital was on the edge as a defiant PML-N asserted it would move along with lawyers and activists, whose 'long march' is set to culminate with a sit-in outside Parliament tomorrow. The protesters are demanding reinstatement of judges sacked in 2007 by then president Pervez Musharraf.
Interior Ministry chief Rehman Malik, however, claimed no orders had been issued for putting the Sharif brothers under house arrest.