LAKKI MARWAT: Religious Affairs Minister Mufti Abdul Shakoor, who had died last night in a road accident in Islamabad, was laid to rest on Sunday in Tajbi Khel area of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s Lakki Marwat district.
The federal minister and Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) leader had died in a road accident in the capital’s Red Zone area on Saturday evening.
According to the police, the minister, 55, was heading towards Secretariat Chowk on Constitution Avenue when his car was hit by a Hilux vehicle with five passengers on board.
The minister was immediately shifted to the Polyclinic Hospital in a critical condition, but he couldn’t be resuscitated. At the time, police said all the five occupants of the other vehicle had been arrested and shifted to a nearby police station for investigation.
Mufti Shakoor’s funeral prayers in Lakki Marwat were attended by many JUI-F workers, politicians and locals of the area. MNA Mohsin Dawar and JUI leader Maulana Muhammad Anwar were also present.
Hailing from Lakki Marwat, Mufti Shakoor was a vocal JUI-F leader and was known for his fiery speeches against his political rivals, especially the PTI. He had won the National Assembly seat of NA-51 in the 2018 general elections from the platform of the Muttahida Majlis-i-Amal.
Meanwhile, a first information report (FIR) was registered in Islamabad against five suspects involved in the road accident.
The FIR was filed late on Saturday night at Islamabad’s Secretariat police station on the complaint of Haji Qudratullah under Sections 279 (rash driving or riding on a public way), 322 (punishment for qatl-bis-sabab) and 427 (mischief causing damage to the amount of fifty rupees) of the Pakistan Penal Code.
In the FIR, Qudratullah said that the minister was visiting his house for Iftar yesterday. He said Mufti Shakoor had left for Parliament Lodges at 8:22pm.
However, the complainant said his cook received a call from Mufti Shakoor’s driver at 10pm regarding the minister’s death. The complainant said that the driver told his cook that the minister was driving his government car, a Toyota Corolla, when a Hilux crashed into it due to the other driver’s “inattentiveness and carelessness”.
Qudratullah noted that as the matter was of a “highly sensitive degree”, “justice should be served” to the victim by “considering every aspect” and taking action against those present in the Hilux.
Late last night, Islamabad police had shared pictures of Islamabad Inspector General Akbar Nasir Khan and Chief Commissioner Muhammad Usman Younus visiting the area where the accident took place.
The minister’s ravaged black Corolla could be seen in the background as police and government officials inspected the scene. –Agencies
