Lahore (LTN NEWS): Nazir Ahmad Chohan, a former Punjab lawmaker who was a PTI dissident but later ran in Punjab by-elections on a PML-N ticket, was charged with terrorism on Tuesday, less than a week after the province was taken over by the PTI’s ally, the PML-Q.
Chohan is one of the 25 dissident PTI lawmakers, including five on reserved seats, who voted for Hamza in the Punjab chief minister’s election in April and were then removed from their seats by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
PTI swept the by-elections for the 20 general seats that were open, winning 15 of them. Then, in the second election for the top job in Punjab, it was able to put Parvez Elahi of the PML-Q in charge.
There were rumors that Chohan was involved in fights between PML-N and PTI workers before the by-elections. On Monday, he was arrested because of a fight between armed PTI and PML-N supporters during the PP-167 by-election.
Hina Parvez Butt, a PML-N Punjab MPA, sent out a tweet with a video of Chohan’s arrest and said it was wrong. In it, police officers can be seen walking him to a police van and putting him in the back while he asks them what he did wrong and why they are treating him this way.
The first information report (FIR) that came out after his arrest and of which Dawn.com has a copy, was filed under Sections 324 (attempt to kill), 353 (assault or act to stop a public servant from doing his job), 186 (interfering with state function), 506-B (punishment for criminal intimidation), 148 (armed rioting), and 149 (unlawful assembly).
The FIR was filed on August 1 at the Chung police station. It included Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act of 1997. (Monday).
In the FIR, it said that police knew where Chohan was because he had already been named in a different case. It said that when he was pulled over, he got out of his car and straightened his right hand, which was allegedly holding a gun.
Also, people with guns who were with Chohan got out of another car and allegedly opened fire on police, according to the FIR. It said that officials “saved their lives by lying flat on the ground.”
Later today, police took Chohan to a court that deals with terrorism to get him physically held. During the hearing, the prosecutor said that the former MPA had a lot of ammunition that needed to be found and taken away.
But Chohan’s lawyer said that his client had already been charged at the Johar Town police station and given a clean bill of health. “There was no reason to arrest my client,” he said. Chohan had been arrested for “political reasons,” he added.
The judge told the police to follow the law and turned down the request to keep Chohan in custody. Chohan and his accomplices were sent to jail by the court.
Later, PML-Attaullah N’s Tarar showed video of Chohan at the anti-terrorism court. He said that Chohan and he were there to celebrate the verdict in the case against the PTI for illegal funding.
PP-167 fight
The Lahore police had arrested Chohan the day before because of an armed fight between PTI and PML-N workers during the PP-167 by-election. Chohan was taken into custody by a team from the Crime Investigation Agency (CIA) in the Chung area. He was then moved to a secret location.
SSP Investigation Imran Kishwar said that Mr. Chohan was arrested because of an FIR that was filed on June 19 at the Johar Town Police Station during the campaign for the by-election.
The event got a lot of attention when the leaders of both parties, Shabbir Gujjar and Nazir Chohan, accused each other of attacking the workers of the other party with guns. They were both running for the same seat in the by-election, but Chohan lost to Gujjar in the end.
In connection with the case, Chohan was arrested on the orders of Lahore police leaders, according to a police official. He said that Gujjar’s young nephew had also been hurt in the fight, and the police did something when he said he had gotten a report from the hospital about his nephew’s injuries.
He said that Gujjar asked the police to do something about Chohan based on the medical report of his nephew.
