Pak SC admits petition for Sharif's disqualification

Pakistan's Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif was today dragged to the Supreme Court by an opposition party member for allegedly lying in parliament over asking the army to mediate with anti-government protesters.

Ishaq Khan Khakwani of Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) led by cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan, filed the request through his counsel Irfan Qadir.

Ghulam Muhammad Khan, an advocate at the Supreme Court, said that Chief Justice Nasirul Mulk will hear the petition on September 29.

The petitioner alleged that Sharif this month falsely told parliament that he had not asked army chief General Raheel Sharif to mediate between the government and protest leaders Khan and fiery cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri who have been agitating in Islamabad for over a month to force Sharif to quit.

Khan alleges that last year's general election, which his party lost, was rigged while Qadri wants to bring in a revolution in the country.

Sharif in a policy statement in parliament had denied making any such request to the army.

But he faced embarrassment when the army in a statement said that the prime minister had asked General Sharif to help settle the political tension.

Khakwani, a central committee leader of PTI, asked the court to order disqualification of the prime minister for not being truthful as required under the law.

He also said that Sharif had tried to malign and damage the fair image of the army in violation of Article 62 (g) of the Constitution. Khan had earlier announced that his party would move the court against Sharif for misleading parliament.