Tareen group MPA arrested, granted bail

LAHORE: An Additional District and Sessions court on Tuesday granted bail to PTI MPA Nazir Chauhan (Jahangir Tareen group), an accused of levelling allegations concerning religious beliefs of Prime Minister’s Adviser on Accountability Shahzad Akbar and endangering his life.

The court has granted bail to Chauhan on submission of surety bonds of Rs100,000. Chauhan was arrested earlier in the day from Jauhar Town. The MPA assured the court that he was ready to cooperate with the investigators, and that he had already presented himself before the police for his arrest which was not made.

According to the FIR, registered at Race Course Police Station, Shahzad Akbar accused Chauhan of making allegations concerning the former's religious beliefs in TV show, adding that these statements had put his life at risk.

The FIR had been registered under sections 506 (punishment for criminal intimidation), 189 (threat of injury to public servant), 298 (making statements with deliberate intent to hurt religious feelings) and 153 (provoking to cause riot) of the Pakistan Penal Code. Meanwhile, Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry expressed hope that the matter related to Nazir Chauhan will be dealt purely in accordance with law.

I hope law will be enforced fully, using religion for political purposes is unacceptable and Courts should take such issues very seriously" said Fawad Chaudhry while talking to The News.

A meeting of PTI MPAs from the Tareen group is likely to take place today (Wednesday). The time and venue of the meeting had not been decided till the filing of the report as most of the MPAs were returning to Lahore from their constituencies. However, the meeting is most likely to take place at the residence of Provincial Minister Nauman Langrial. The News also tried to contact Jahangir Khan Tareen but he wasn’t available for comment.