TNI Bureau: Pakistan is facing a tough period of time after Yousuf Raza Gilani was forced to quit as the Prime Minister last year. Another political crisis hit the country when the Supreme Court ordered the arrest of new Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf.
The apex court ordered the police to arrest Ashraf and 15 others within 24 hours in connection with a corruption case. Ashraf has been accused of receiving bribes in the Rental Power Projects when he was the minister for water and power.
The order came after an influential cleric called Tahir-ul-Qadri, who is the chief of Tehrik Minhaj-ul-Quran, marched towards Jinnah Avenue in the heart of Islamabad with tens of thousands of supporters demanding the national and provincial assemblies to be dissolved.
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He claimed that he would lead a “people’s democratic revolution”. He had signed an agreement with the Islamabad administration to protest peacefully today. But his followers broke the barricades and moved towards the parliament.
Pakistan government will complete its five-year term in mid-March and elections are expected to be held by May. The ruling PPP party will elect a new leader to replace Ashraf if he will be arrested as per the apex court order.
Earlier, Gilani was forced to quit for contempt of court. He had refused to write to Swiss authorities to reopen graft cases against President Asif Ali Zardari there.