LAHORE: The Punjab Bar Council (PbBC) on Saturday restored the legal practicing licence of Advocate Hassaan Khan Niazi, nephew of Prime Minister Imran Khan, earlier suspended on a complaint of the counsel for widow of Balochistan former governor Nawab Akbar Bugti, who also got an FIR registered against him.

On being summoned, Mr Niazi appeared before the executive committee of the PbBC.

The committee restored his licence as Advocate Ayaz Butt, the counsel for Ms Shahzadi Nargis, the widow of Bugti, withdrew her complaint.

The PbBC secretary also issued a notification to the effect and sent the same to the district & sessions judge of Lahore, senior civil judge and the Lahore Bar Association’s president.

Talking to the media, Niazi said he stood vindicated against the ‘baseless’ accusations of a ‘mafia.’

He announced initiating proceedings against the woman for registering a ‘false’ FIR against him.

He alleged that the inspector general of police had ordered registration of the ‘fake’ case against him.

Niazi told Dawn that Advocate Butt also recorded his statement before the police and denied the alleged incident narrated in the FIR of his woman client.

Islampura police had lodged the case on the complaint of Ms Nargis who accused Niazi of attacking her when she appeared before a sessions court to secure bail in a case of cyber crime registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Nargis further alleged that Niazi and his accomplices first abused her in the presence of her lawyer and then tried to strangle her with an intention to take her life.

The FIA had lodged a case against Nargis on a complaint of her former daughter in-law namely Wishah Abubakar for sharing her objectionable pictures and videos on social media.

She also accused her former husband Shahzawar Bugti of subjecting her to physical torture and extending life threats to her.

Advocate Niazi is a legal counsel for Ms Abubakar.

Published in Dawn, July 18th, 2021