KARACHI: A Muttahida Qaumi Movement-Pakistan lawmaker, who recently returned to the party after ditching it for the Pak Sarzameen Party, has been accused of assaulting a woman when she was a teenager in 2014.

The woman, now married, filed an application at the Gulshan-i-Iqbal police station against MNA Salman Mujahid Baloch seeking “protection” against him.

Mr Baloch has denied the allegations.

The two-page application of the woman stated that the MNA had brought her to Islamabad on the pretext of helping her in getting a job. She alleged that on Aug 12, 2014, when she was 16-17, he sexually assaulted her in Parliament Lodges.

She said he did not marry her despite repeated promises and when she insisted he started abusing her and also tortured her.

She said the MNA made objectionable videos of her and started blackmailing her, when she married someone else with her family’s consent.

She stated that he was continuously harassing her and her family, pressuring her husband to divorce her.

She requested the police to provide her protection from him.

She said Salman Mujahid Baloch should be held responsible if any harm was caused either to her or her family.

However, Mr Baloch denied all allegations and claimed that a conspiracy was hatched against him only because he had rejoined Dr Sattar.

He told a private news channel that he had lodged an FIR against the woman on Dec 16, 2017.

He claimed that he had given Rs4 million to that woman for medical treatment of her mother and now she and her family were not returning the money.

Meanwhile, a criminal intimidation case was registered against the MNA early on Tuesday morning on the complaint of a Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf worker at the Gizri police station.

PTI’s Ahsan Alvi stated in his complaint that he was driving in a narrow street in a Defence area on Monday evening when Mr Baloch’s vehicle came from the opposite direction. He said he could not give way to his vehicle immediately due to which the MNA’s guards pointed their weapons at him and threatened him.

Mr Baloch, however, denied all the allegations.

Published in Dawn, February 14th, 2018