QUETTA: The police on Wednesday booked PTI chief Imran Khan in the drive-by shooting of a lawyer, who sought sedition proceedings against the former prime minister.

The FIR against Mr Khan has been registered at Shaheed Jameel Kakar Police Station in an “abetment to murder” case on the complaint of the lawyer’s son, police officials told the media.

Mr Khan already faces dozens of cases registered since his ouster in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April last year.

The murdered lawyer, Abdul Razzaq Shar, had filed a constitutional petition against Mr Khan in the Balochistan High Court (BHC), seeking proceedings against the former premier under Article 6, which is related to high treason.

His petition said that Mr Khan should be tried under Article 6 considering a Supreme Court decision which had recommended legal action against the former premier and the then deputy speaker of the National Assembly, Qasim Suri, for dissolving the House after the joint opposition moved the no-trust motion last year.

The petition, being heard by a division bench of the BHC headed by Chief Justice Naeem Akhtar Afghan, had been fixed for hearing on June 7 (Wednesday), just a day before Mr Shar’s killing.

Mr Shar, a senior Supreme Court lawyer, was shot dead by unidentified assailants near Alamo Chowk on Airport Road on Tuesday.

Police said he was on his way to the high court when his vehicle came under attack by unknown men armed with automatic weapons. The lawyer received 15 bullet injuries and died on the spot.

Until late on Tuesday night, the police were clueless about the suspects and an investigation was underway.

Babar Khan Yousafzai, a spokesman for the Balochistan government, confirmed that the FIR had been registered against Mr Khan in the killing of Mr Shar. Mr Yousafzai told Dawn that the former prime minister would face formal charges when the murder case was tried.

In a speech on social media on Wednesday night, Imran Khan called the case against him “absurd”, adding that the matter was never investigated.

Separately, a meeting of the Pakistan Bar Council held on Wednesday condemned Mr Shar’s targeted killing in Quetta.

Published in Dawn, June 8th, 2023