Ahsan Chughtai sat on a gilded chair, wearing a garland and clutching a small water bottle as a group of businessmen paid their respects to him.
Prominent members of New York’s Pakistani community had gathered to celebrate his appointment as Mayor Eric Adams’ Senior Advisor on South Asia and Muslim Affairs in March of 2022, as well as two other people who had ascended to the highest echelons of New York City’s government. In attendance was Ayesha Ali, the consul general of Pakistan, as well as a handful of construction company owners and other businessmen.
“Now it’s my turn to open the portals in politics,” Chughtai told the room. “We need to flood the gates with people working for the politicians and guess what every politician is looking for a Muslim right now.”
Chughtai’s ties to influential members of the city’s Pakistani business and political community could now prove to be a liability for the mayor.
Last month, Chughtai was fired from his advisor position. This summer, his home was raided by the FBI and the NYC Department of Investigation in conjunction with the city’s probe into corruption in the Adams administration, according to the Daily News.
Although it remains unclear why Chughtai was let go, his firing came weeks before Mohamed Bahi, senior liaison to the city’s Muslim community, was charged on Tuesday for witness tampering regarding a probe into the mayor’s connections to a prominent Uzbek developer.
Before serving as an advisor to the mayor, Chughtai was one of the founders of the Pakistani American Youth Society based in Brooklyn. While he was employed as the mayor’s advisor, Chughtai personally donated $1,000 to the mayor’s re-election bid on June 13, 2023.
Also read: Did Mayor Adams Take Straw Donations From an Uzbek Construction Boss?
The March 2022 party, celebrating his $140,000-a-year senior advisor role, was hosted by Mirza Khawar Baig, the owner of United City Contracting Inc. as well as the senior vice president of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI-USA), a Pakistani political party registered in 2020 as a foreign agent operating in the U.S. which held a fundraiser for Adams in 2020. In 2021, Baig also personally donated $2,300 to the Adams campaign.
In August 2023, Adams appeared onstage with Baig and Zameer Chaudhry at the Pakistan Day parade, where he was given an appreciation award. Chaudhry self-identifies as PTI-USA’s Youth President and serves as community director for the Pakistani American Community of New York (PACONY).
In the same month, the mayor spoke at a flag-raising ceremony for Pakistan, where he proclaimed that “New York was the Islamabad of America.” The event was sponsored by the PACONY, whose board includes Parvez Riaz, Amin Ghani, and Zameer Chaudhry, who were at the March 2022 event honoring Chughtai.
Atia Shahnaz, another key Adams aid, also has links to PTI-USA. Shahnaz was appointed as a program coordinator for the Mayor’s Office in 2022 and also functions as the mayor’s Muslim Women Liaison. On September 2023, the mayor hosted a Pakistani community roundtable event at City Hall. Chughtai and Shahnaz were both present, along with members of PTI-USA and PACONY.
Before her role at City Hall, Shahnaz donated $1,000 in 2021 to the mayor’s re-election bid. Shortly after her donation, she was hired to work for the Adams administration. She is also the founder of the Pakistan American Skilled Women’s Organization, an organization with links to PTU-USA.
Over the years, other prominent members of PTI-USA have donated to Adams. General Secretary of PTI-USA Sam Abrar Khan, who also appeared at the party celebrating Chughtai but passed away in 2023, donated $2,000 to Adams on February 19, 2021. However, city campaign finance records show that in November, 2021, Khan donated an additional $5,100 to the mayor that was later returned to him.
The relationship Mayor Adams has cultivated with PTI-USA and PACONY is strikingly similar to the relationship the mayor has with prominent members of the Uzbek and Chinese communities. As Documented previously reported, Tolib Mansurov, developer and founder of the Silk Road Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Brooklyn that serves Uzbek New Yorkers, was allegedly implicated in a straw donor scheme that was allegedly facilitated by Bahi.
Winnie Greco, Adams’ volunteer liaison to the city’s Chinese community, is also currently under investigation for playing a pivotal role in facilitating contacts between the mayor and influential local Chinese community leaders with ties to the Chinese government.
Responding to Documented questions regarding why Chughtai was fired, Fabien Levy, deputy mayor for communications, declined to go into any details.
“Regarding Mr. Chugtai, we don’t comment on personnel matters,” he said.
Questions regarding the mayor’s links to PTI-USA and PACONY, Levy referred them to the mayor’s personal lawyer, Alex Spiro. Levy also denied knowing who Atia Shahnaz was.
Correction October 9, 2024: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated when Chughtai was raided by the FBI. It was this summer, not last year. The article was also amended to reflect more accurate data about campaign finance records. We apologize for the errors.
