Imran Khan joins Bhutto's club after booked for Rangers deaths

Former Prime Minister (PM) Imran Khan has become the country’s second former prime minister (PM) to be booked in a murder case, joining a rather exclusive club of two alongside Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) founder and ex-PM Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

According to reports, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former premier Khan was booked for the deaths of paramilitary personnel during the party’s violent protests in Islamabad last week. Three Rangers personnel had died when a fast-driving vehicle had run them over on the Srinagar Highway.

The driver was held by law enforcement near Shaheen Chowk and shifted to the Margalla police station along with the vehicle, police said. He was later transferred to an undisclosed location, they added.

Amid confusion and conflicting claims over the ownership of the vehicle and who was behind the wheel when the incident took place, a case at the Ramna police station has nominated Khan and other party leaders under sections 302 (murder), 324 (attempt to murder), 120B (criminal conspiracy), and 114 (abettor present when the offence is committed) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). Charges of terrorism have also been included to the FIR [First Information Report] against the accused.

Reports quoted a police official as saying that an unknown Land Cruiser driver had rammed his vehicle into Rangers personnel with the intention to kill them, leaving three martyred and two injured.

“Had it been an accident and not murder, the FIR would have been lodged under Section 322 of the PPC instead of Section 302,” reports quoted sources in the prosecution department as saying.

With the case being registered, Khan has joined the club of ex-PM Bhutto, who, in November 1974, became the only former premier to be nominated in a murder case. The same ultimately led to his hanging in 1979.

Former dictator General Zia Ul Haq had toppled the Bhutto-led government in 1977 and imposed martial law in the country, which remained for the next 11 years. It ended only after the Zia’s death in a plane crash in 1988.

It merits a mention that murder charges against Khan come days after an Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) issued a non-bailable arrest warrant for the PTI founder, his wife Bushra Bibi, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Chief Minister (CM) Ali Amin Gandapur, former President Arif Alvi and 92 others in connection to last week’s violent protests.

PTI had on Nov 24 started its march on the federal capital. The widespread protests ended at Islamabad’s D-Chowk as police and Rangers launched a grand clearance operation against the demonstrators on Tuesday night, following three days of violent clashes.