LAHORE: Nazir Chohan, a leader of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), was arrested here on Monday night on suspicion of an attack on a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) election office and its activists, a development that investigators have linked to the change of guard in Punjab.
Chohan, a former PTI lawmaker who contested the July 17 by-election on a PML-N ticket, was arrested for attacking a PTI camp office and inflicting injuries on its supporters.
In the footage of Chohan’s arrest, police personnel can be seen escorting him and putting him in the back of a police van as he asked them what he had done and why were they subjecting him to this treatment.
The first information report (FIR) which emerged after his arrest is registered under Sections 324 (murder attempt), 353 (assault or act to deter a public servant from discharging his duty), 186 (interfering in the state function), 506-B (punishment for criminal intimidation), 148 (armed rioting) and 149 (unlawful assembly) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
Section 7 of the Anti-Terrorism Act 1997 was also included in the FIR, which was registered at the Chung police station on August 1.
Chohan is among the 25 PTI dissident MPs (including five on reserved seats) who voted for Hamza Shehbaz in the Punjab chief minister’s election in April and were subsequently de-seated by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP).
PTI swept the by-elections on the 20 general seats that were vacated, securing 15, after which it was able to install Parvez Elahi of the PML-Q as chief minister in the second election for the top post.
