HARIPUR, Feb 2 MPA Gohar Nawaz Khan of the ANP, one of the accused in the murder case of Sher Azam Khan, has said he is innocent and had no enmity with the slain PML-N leader.

Speaking at a news conference at his residence here on Monday, the MPA, who was awarded transit bail by the district and sessions judge in Mansehra, said the moment Mr Sher Azam was shot dead he was home with his supporters.

Mr Gohar was elected on the vacant PF-51 (Haripur-III) seat of his slain brother Akhtar Nawaz Khan. He said his family neither had political nor personal vendetta with Mr Sher Azam because he was not involved in the murder of his brother Akhtar Nawaz, who was shot dead last September.

He, however, accused the Punjab government of playing a negative role in the cases of killing of his brother and now Mr Sher Azam.

About the arrest of suspended tehsil nazim Iftikhar Ahmed Khan, who is the principal accused in the Akhtar Nawaz murder case, Mr Gohar alleged that police were extending him full protocol. Meanwhile, the slain PML-N leader was laid to rest in his ancestral graveyard in Khalabat here on Monday. His funeral prayer was held at the ground of the Government Degree College for Boys, Chandani Chowk.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif visited the house of the slain leader, offered condolence to the bereaved family, and offered Fateha for the departed soul.

PML-N chairman Raja Zafarul Haq, Opposition Leader in National Assembly Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, Iqbal Zafar Jhagra, former NWFP chief ministers Sardar Mehtab Ahmed Khan and Pir Sabir Shah, for National Assembly speaker Gohar Ayub Khan, former minister of state for finance Omar Ayub Khan and Punjab provincial ministers Rana Sana Ullah Khan and Chaudhry Abdul Ghafoor were prominent among those who attended the final rites of the slain leader.

The FIR of the murder had been registered on a written complaint of Mr Sher Azam's son Usman against MPA Gohar Nawaz, his brother Saeed Nawaz Khan, nephew Samiullah Khan, brother-in-law Mushtaq Ali Khan and two unknown people under sections 302, 324, 109,146 and 148 of the Criminal Procedure Code.—Correspondent