Regional
Pakistan’s religious affairs minister dies in road accident
Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Mufti Abdul Shakoor died in a road accident in Islamabad on Saturday, police said.
The accident happened near parliament house, Islamabad police said on Twitter.
Shakoor was taken to hospital, where doctors declared him dead.
Five people, including the driver of the second vehicle have been taken into custody, police said.
The minister was alone and driving his car, Islamabad police chief Nasir Akbar Khan told reporters.
Shakoor, a veteran lawmaker from the mainstream religious party Jamiat Ulema Islam-Fazl, was elected as a member of the lower house – the National Assembly – in the 2018 general elections.
His funeral prayers will be held in his ancestral Lakki Marwat district of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Sunday, his party said in a statement.
Meanwhile, President Arif Alvi, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, and other government and opposition lawmakers expressed sorrow over Shakoor’s death.