KARACHI, Pakistan: Pakistani police say they have found the bullet-riddled bodies of a veteran politician and his wife at their home in Karachi.
Senior Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader and Provincial Minister for Planning and Development Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani and his wife Fareeha Razaq were found dead in their home in Defence Khayaban-e-Shasher.
Authorities say it is unclear whether Bijarani and his wife died from murder or suicide.
Senior police officer Tauqeer Naeem says servants found the bodies of the couple in their bedroom on Thursday and that there was no sign of robbery.
Bijarani is from the party of former president Asif Ali Zardari and was formerly a federal minister.
Media reports quoting family sources said that sound of firing was heard before the tragic incident but the cause of death is yet to be ascertained.
The bodies were recovered after breaking down the door of their room. Sources said Bijarani’s son, MNA Mir Shabbir Ali Bijarani, was at Bilawal House for a meeting when he was informed about the incident. The veteran politician has served several times as federal and provincial minister during the tenures of PPP. He was provincial lawmaker, elected from Kashmore. He was also Provincial Minister for Planning and Development. Mir Hazar Khan Bajarani was politically close to slain PPP leader Benazir Bhutto. He was also former Federal Minister.
Bijarani was elected from the PS-16 constituency of Jacobabad-Kashmore and has remained an MNA and senator.
Chief Minister Sindh Syed Murad Ali Shah, Home Minister Sohail Anwar Siyal and several other party leaders and workers have also reached at Meer Hazar Khan Bijarani residence. According to Police, it can be a suicide case.
Shutter down has been announced in the native town of Meer Hazar Khan Bijarani. Although Federal Interior Minister Ahsan Iqbal was in the city on Thursday but neither he gave any statement related to this incident nor visited the Hazar Khan Bijarani house until filing of this news.
According to sources, the senior PPP minister committed suicide allegedly after killing his wife. PPP leader Nasir Hussain Shah said the preliminary investigation shows that both were shot in the head. He said there was no sign of stress on Bijarani’s face when he attended the cabinet meeting yesterday (Wednesday). “He (Hazar Bijarani) was not that person who would commit suicide,” Shah said
Facts would be unearthed only after the investigation and exemplary punishment will be given if any person found involved in this incident, he warned. Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has announced three-day mourning in connection with sudden and sad death of Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani. No political activity will be held during the said days.
Meer Hazar Khan Bijarani was an MPA in current Sindh Assembly, whose tenure spans from the year 2013 till date.
Currently, he was serving as minister of Works and Services and a Member of Committee on Government Assurances.
He was elected as a Member of National Assembly of Pakistan in 1990/1997, he has also served as Member of Provincial Assembly of Sindh in 1974, 1977 and 2013, he also served as a Senator in the year 1988.
Mir Hazar Khan Bijarani is an academically qualified person, who has achieved the degree in Master of Arts in Political Science and Bachelors of Law from Sindh Muslim Law College and Bachelors of Arts from National College Karachi. He was born in Karampur (Sindh) on 10th July 1946.
