Attempt on MPA’s life: PML-N leader among six booked

MPA Gohar Nawaz survived the attack on Saturday evening.

HARIPUR: Six suspects including the local leader of an opposition party were booked in an attempt on the life of a ruling party member of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa assembly.

MPA Gohar Nawaz Khan of the Awami National Party (ANP) nominated Advocate Zulfiqar Ahmed of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and his nephew Asad Javed Khan for abetting Usman Azam, Faizan Azam, Bahadur Sher and Sher Afghan in the crime.

The city police have registered a case against all the six suspects.

However, no arrested were made until 6pm, when this report was filed.

Gohar, who is also the chairman of Haripur District Development Advisory Committee, was on his way home on Saturday evening when his vehicle was attacked with rockets and firing near Shah Baba Graveyard on Tarebal Road. However, Khan and his guards managed to escape.

Zulfiqar and Asad have also been charged with the murder of Hafeez Ahmed, Gohar’s private secretary, who was gunned down last month.

Gohar and Zulfiqar, who are close relatives, developed a rivalry during the 2008 election.

Enmity between the two groups has claimed nine lives so far including that of former MPA Akhtar Nawaz of the ANP, former Haripur nazim Iftikhar Ahmed Khan and Nawaz Sharif’s political secretary Sher Azam, according to people familiar with the matter.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 9^th, 2012.