Ubuntu PHP returning invalid MSSQL Server date format

My PHP/Laravel App is hosted on ubuntu 14, php 5.5. The app is connecting to Sql Server via freetds/odbc.

In my freetds.conf I have these settings for date time:

[default]

date format = %Y-%m-%d %I:%M:%S.%z

In my database Datetime is stored as:

2016-12-07 07:11:31.000

When I run query against my db I get this date:

Dec  7 2016 07:11:31:000AM

I tried all possible solutions. Can anyone please help me sort out this issue? Any kind of help is highly appreciated.

via Chebli Mohamed