TEHRAN - Less than a week after Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) chief Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz were arrested by an accountability court in Islamabad in an anti-graft case, some top leaders of the party have been booked under an anti-terrorism law by Pakistani authorities.

The fresh development comes just 10 days before the general election in Pakistan, which has further demoralised the party workers. The case pertains to a march carried out by PML-N workers on July 13, the day Sharif returned to Pakistan from UK. Those who defied a ban on holding public rallies that day find themselves in trouble.

The former Pakistani premier, sentenced to 11-year prison term, was arrested, along with his daughter, upon their return in Lahore on July 13. They were taken from the aircraft and transferred to Islamabad in a special plane, from where they were shifted to Adiala Jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.

According to a report published in The News International, copies of two First Information Reports (FIR), which mark the opening of criminal investigation, were filed against PML-N leader and Sharif’s brother Shahbaz Sharif and other senior leaders including Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, the former prime minister.

The FIRs cite Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act, which has broad definition of terrorism including the actions to create public fear, and lists 10 alleged violations of ordinary criminal law, according to the report.