Shanaz Hussain removed from PTI after fight at Manchester airport

LONDON: PTI Central Secretariat has ended basic membership of PTI UK activist and elected board member Shanaz Hussain after she made allegations of sexual abuse by the party activists.

PTI’s office of international chapters said that it had received a complaint from elected President PTI UK Riaz Hassan about a breach of party discipline and violation of rules by Shanaz Hussain and Mohammad Imran – who both are now dismissed from the party.

The action was taken after Shanaz Hussain made allegations at a press conference on Friday night in Manchester – two hours after the brawl at Manchester Airport where two groups of PTI fought each other.

Shanaz Hussain is known as Shanaz Saddique in PTI party and social media publicity material. In January 2012, Preston Crown Court found Shanaz Hussain guilty of £360,000 mortgage fraud after a trial which found that Shanaz Hussain had forged several documents and also forged signatures of a law firm. Shanaz Hussain was found guilty of seven fraud offences, was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years and she was also ordered to complete 300 hours community service.

The PTI notification, available with this correspondent, confirmed that basic membership of Shanaz Hussain and Mohammad Imran has ended and both have been removed from the party with immediate effect.

There was a fight at the Manchester Airport on Friday night after Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaisar arrived from Pakistan on a private visit. The scuffle broke out between PTI activists and a group called ‘Imran Khan Lovers’. The ‘Lovers’ wanted Asad Qaisar to attend dinner with them but the speaker refused owing to his private commitments. A brawl started as two groups swore at each other while the speaker was seen being pushed around during the brawl.

Shanaz Hussain was seen talking to the NA Speaker at the airport and inviting him for dinner.

Later, Shanaz Saddique addressed a press conference with a group of women and made allegations of sexual harassment she allegedly faced during the PTI events and by the party members.

She alleged that she has been a victim of sexual abuse and respect of women is not protected in PTI. She called on PTI Chairman Imran Khan to look into the matter and investigate. “I have three grown-up daughters and I don’t bring them to events. What’s the point of doing it all when respect and honour of women are not protected. We must speculate as to why women who were active and at the forefront 5 years ago have disappeared today from the scene,” she alleged.

On Saturday evening, PTI UK’s elected President Riaz Hassan issued a statement and announced that Shanaz Saddique has been dismissed from the PTI with immediate effect. Hassan rejected the allegations made by the female activist and called it “a cheap publicity stunt”.

Riaz Hassan regretted the scene that unfolded at Manchester Airport and said it was “embarrassing” and “damaging to PTI”.

He explained: “The speaker had declined to attend the event arranged by Imran Khan Lovers. I had advised him to postpone that plan and we would make a plan at another time. Shanaz Hussain and Muhammad Imran have been suspended for a number of weeks. Imran Khan Lovers has nothing to do with the PTI and there will be action against these people as per party rules.”

“We have zero tolerance for all kinds of harassment, especially harassment of sexual nature. I am surprised that she has not gone to the police over the time to report the so-called sexual harassment incidents. if she was ever harassed why didn’t she go to the police and report, why didn’t she report it within the party,” he asked.

“My wife, my children and my family are PTI and there are many women colleagues and all of them are playing their positive role. Ayesha Gulalai had made similar allegations and nothing came out of that,” he added.

Shanaz Hussain, who goes by the name of Shanaz Siddique, once served as Chairperson of Kashmir Council UK.

In December 2011, a jury at Preston Crown Court found Shanaz Hussain guilty of £360,000 mortgage fraud after a trial found she had committed fraud by forging signatures of her estranged husband Mazhar Hussain using a series of fraudulent documents (land registry, utility bills and passport) to trick the Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society to secure a loan for the joint home with Mazhar Hussain whose solicitor identified the fraud for the first time. Shanaz Hussain had also forged signatures of a solicitor.

At the end of May 2012, Shanaz Saddique was told by the court to pay £360,000 in mortgage fraud to Cheltenham and Gloucester Building Society and £8,403 in legal costs within six months or be jailed for three and a half years.

The Lancashire Telegraph reported that Shanaz Hussain, who had served on the Burnley, Pendle and Rossendale bench for six years until 2009, was a former co-director of the Lincoln Group of Companies as well as a supporter of the Tehreek-e-Insaf party (Pakistan Movement for Justice), founded by ex-test cricketer Imran Khan.

The court had heard that Shanaz Hussain’s fraud was discovered by Mazhar Hussain’s solicitor John McNabb who raised the alarm while handling the divorce case. Shanaz Hussain had denied fraud but her fingerprints were later found on Land Registry, utility bill and passport forms, which had supposedly been signed by Mr Mazhar Hussain and Ansar Amin, of Walker Preston Solicitors in Blackburn, but both Mr Hussain and Mr Amin denied signing the papers. She was also charged with selling off her former husband’s personalised number plate, from an Audi A6, and transferring it to her own car.

When arrested and interviewed by the police in the fraud investigation, Shanaz Hussain falsely accused Mazhar Hussain of making allegations as she had reported him for breaching an injunction she had taken out against him.

During the jury trial, the prosecution established before the jury that Shanaz Hussain had committed forgery and lied in many ways. Handwriting experts confirmed to the court that she had forged signatures of her husband and a solicitor and lied to the mortgage company to send papers at an address which she controlled to deceive her husband who was involved in a bitter divorce with her.

Shanaz Hussain had initially denied fraud and six offences of possession of articles for use in connection with fraud but later on accepted before the court that she had acted dishonestly in committing fraud.