The Lahore police on Saturday lodged a first information report (FIR) against Punjab MPA Nazir Chohan at the request of Prime Minister Imran Khan’s aide on accountability Shahzad Akbar.
The FIR against Chohan, who has voiced support for estranged PTI leader Jahangir Tareen, has been registered under sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 189 (threat of injury to public servant), 298 (making statements with deliberate intent to wound religious feelings) and 153 (provoking to cause riot) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
In the FIR, the SAPM said Chohan has levelled allegations that are ‘unfounded, false and vexatious’ and which may ‘put his life in danger’. In the FIR, registered at Race Course Police Station in Lahore, Akbar has accused Chohan of making allegations concerning the former’s religious beliefs during an appearance on a television channel, adding that these statements had put his life at risk. “The offence has been committed to cause injury to the reputation, body, property and mind of the applicant and cause hatred in public at large towards the applicant,” the FIR states, adding that Chohan committed ‘the offence with the nefarious design to wound the religious feelings of the applicant’.
Shehzad Akbar has alleged in the FIR that Chauhan’s motive is to discourage him from playing a proactive role in curbing corruption and ensuring accountability in Pakistan. “The applicant has been subjected to similar allegations in the past because he is performing his duties in a vigilant and responsible manner and the intent of the accused is to forbear the applicant from the exercise of his lawful functions,” the FIR states, adding that there is a likelihood that Chohan’s ‘unfounded, false and vexatious’ allegations will provoke ‘religious hatred’ and endanger Akbar’s life.
Shehzad Akbar’s complaint followed a statement made by Chohan on television, a clip of which has gone viral on social media. The PM’s aide, citing the clip, warned of social unrest and requested urgent legal action against Chohan for ‘committing heinous offences’.
Reacting to the development, MPA Chohan said that the Punjab Police has registered a ‘false case’ against him. He vowed to ‘wage a war’ against the move, saying he remained quiet thus far despite having ‘evidence’ against Akbar. “I give myself up for arrest,” he said, adding he will not secure a pre-arrest bail. “People who sit to the right and left of Khan sahab (Imran Khan) are not politicians,” he added.
Federal Minister for Communications and Postal Services Murad Saeed stood in solidarity with Akbar, saying that the advisor is ‘fulfilling his duty’ but some people, for ‘personal gains’, are launching a ‘misleading propaganda’ against him. “This is not only shameful but is a crime according to the Pakistan Penal Code,” he added.
The PTI’s Jahangir Khan Tareen group, of which Chohan is a part, has named Shehzad Akbar behind the ‘victimisation’ of Tareen in a sugar case. Akbar, however, says Tareen’s reservations of being targeted in the sugar inquiry are “incorrect and the inquiry was being carried out impartially”.
