ISLAMABAD – The Pakistani army stepped into the country's two-week-old political crisis on Thursday when Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif requested that the army chief, Gen. Raheel Sharif, help defuse a standoff that has crippled the government.

Thousands of protesters led by opposition politician Imran Khan and cleric Tahir-ul-Qadri have been camped in Islamabad since Aug. 15 as part of protest movements aimed at forcing the prime minister to resign.

The two movements are allied but have differing goals. Khan, who accuses Nawaz Sharif of rigging last year's general election, wants new elections, while Qadri is calling for an interim unity government to run the country. Every night, the two protest leaders have held rallies in Islamabad, defying predictions from government supporters that their movement would fade away.

Efforts by Sharif's government to end the crisis through direct negotiations have failed in recent days. Qadri's campaign, in particular, has pressed a demand that ­Sharif's younger brother, Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province, resign first.

Qadri's campaign has been energized by anger among his supporters and the broader public about a police shooting episode in Lahore in June in which at least 10 of his supporters were killed. Qadri has accused Shahbaz Sharif, who has direct control over the Lahore police, of ordering the shootings.

In an apparent bid to appease Qadri, the Lahore police on Thursday registered a murder case in relation to the shootings that named the Sharif brothers, several Cabinet ministers and police officials as suspects in the case. The legal action falls short of an indictment, but it is an official notice that charges are being considered.

Qadri and Khan had billed Thursday as the decisive day of their struggle to oust Nawaz Sharif, leading to fears that they would push their supporters to storm the prime minister's house and Parliament.

As the tension mounted, Nawaz Sharif met with Raheel Sharif, who is not related to him, at the prime minister's house in Islamabad — their second meeting in three days. The two men "agreed to take necessary measures for resumption of the stalled process of negotiations," Nawaz Sharif's spokesman said.

New York Times