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Shahbaz’s arrest ordered

ISLAMABAD: An anti-terrorism court in Lahore on Friday ordered the arrest of Shahbaz Sharif, brother of Pakistan Muslim League leader Nawaz Sharif, for his alleged role in the killings of five persons while he was Chief Minister of Punjab.

The order came three days before the Sharif brothers are due to return to Pakistan. The order says he is to be arrested on arrival. The case against Mr. Shahbaz Sharif’s was registered in 2001. The charge is that he ordered police to kill five persons who belonged to a sectarian group and were suspected of involvement in terrorist activities. Mr. Sharif has denied the charge and said the case was a political frame-up against him.

The National Accountability Bureau has already reopened three corruption cases against Mr. Nawaz Sharif, and reports in newspapers said the government was also contemplating implicating him in the collapse of an apartment building here during the earthquake, as the builder had been allotted the land during his first tenure.

An anti-corruption court in Rawalpindi put off the hearing of the corruption cases against the Sharif brothers until September 13. The cases, which were registered soon after Mr. Sharif was deposed in 1999 by Gen. Pervez Musharraf, and were not pursued after he went into exile, were reopened last month.

The prosecutor for the National Accountability Bureau wanted the hearing to be fixed for September 10 so that Mr. Sharif could be presented in court as soon as he arrives, but the judge dismissed the plea. At the last hearing, the judge had said he would issue arrest warrants only after they arrive, as doing so before would be a violation of the Supreme Court order that they should be allowed to enter unhindered.

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