LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) MPA Nazir Chohan has now opened up a front against Jahangir Tareen, accusing the party’s estranged leader of using him against Adviser to the Prime Minister on Accountability and Interior Shahzad Akbar to get relief in the sugar scam case.

“He [Tareen] used me and later discarded me when he got relief in his case,” Mr Chohan, who was considered as an active member of the Tareen group, said on Wednesday. He was discharged from the Punjab Institute of Cardiology soon after he received bail orders. Later, he went to see prisons minister Fayyaz Chohan and spoke to the media.

Announcing that he had nothing to do with the Tareen group, Mr Chohan declared Prime Minister Imran Khan his leader.

MPA released on bail

Apologizing for his rant against Mr Akbar, he said that he was ashamed of his behavior. About his change of heart that was being dubbed as ‘softwareupdate’, the PTI MPA said, “A person’s software gets updated as soon as he realizes his mistake”.

To other members of the Tareen group, he said, “I’m an example for you”.

“It was a Tareen group when Mr Tareen was facing the sugar scam but it changed to a like-minded group as soon as he was given relief,” he added.

Tareen group’s spokesperson MNA Raja Riaz, however, dismissed Chohan’s allegations, saying that the group had “snubbed” him when he leveled allegations against Mr Akbar.

“Chohan on his own raised a question on the faith of Mr Akbar that was totally rejected by other group members. He was also snubbed by the group members when he used strong language against PM Imran,” Mr Riaz said.

After spending just one night in jail, he said, Chohan realised his mistake of challenging someone’s faith.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Riaz added that the Tareen group did not want to escalate the fight over FIA’s cases against Mr Tareen but Chohan was acting strangely. He even pushed Mr Tareen to go on hunger strike outside the PM House, when the group was requesting the premier to look into the matter (related to FIA’s action against Tareen).

“Mr Tareen is our leader and we have full confidence in the leadership of PM Khan,” he said and added that the group’s core issue had been resolved as nothing had been proved against Mr Tareen in the sugar scam.

MPA Chohan also told reporters that he had gone to see PM Imran Khan and got Barrister Ali Zafar as a one-man commission to probe into the case regarding Mr Tareen but he did not come up to his expectations.

Mr Chohan also apologized to Prime Minister Khan for hurting his feelings and thanked him for taking notice of his issue and instructing his party leadership to reconcile the matter. He said Mr Akbar had also called him in the hospital to inquire after his health and told him that the party leadership wanted that they should mutually resolve the matter.

A little later during the press talk, Mr Chohan also realized that he had also spoken harshly against the prime minister. “I had said something badagainst PM Imran Khan after getting emotional in TV talk shows. Since the err is human, I tender my unconditional apologies to the prime minister,” he said.

Mr Chohan also expressed his gratitude to Speaker Punjab Assembly Parvez Elahi for blocking the assembly proceedings for a couple of days as the FIA bureaucracy did not produce him despite production orders.

Released: A sessions court on Wednesday released PTI MPA Nazir Chohan on bail in a case registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on the complaint of adviser to prime minister on interior and accountability Mirza Shahzad Akbar.

Advocate Haroon Ilyas appeared before the court on behalf of Mr Akbar and said the complainant had pardoned Chohan and had no objection to his bail.

At this, the court allowed the bail petition of Chohan subject to furnishing bail bonds of Rs100,000.

The other day, an affidavit of Akbar was submitted to the court.

It said, “Accused Nazir Chohan admitted his mistake, sought an apology and showed remorse over his false allegations against the complainant for which the complainant had forgiven him in the light of Islamic injunctions of Hazrat Muhammad (PBUH) and for the sake of Almighty Allah.”

The affidavit said Akbar had no objection to post-arrest bail of the accused in the case.

However, the court had required the appearance of Akbar or his authorised representative. Chohan had also sought an apology from Akbar when a court sent him to jail on judicial remand.

A video message of Chohan from the bed of Punjab Institute of Cardiology (PIC) was released on social media. He said, “Akbar has now given his statement that he completely believes in the finality of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH).”

Published in Dawn, August 5th, 2021