Pakistan's religious affairs minister dies in road accident

KARACHI, Pakistan

Pakistan's Religious Affairs Minister Mufti Abdul Shakoor died in a road accident in the capital Islamabad on Saturday, police said.

The accident happened after a vehicle coming from the opposite side hit Shakoor’s car near the parliament house, Islamabad police said on Twitter.

He was taken to a hospital where doctors pronounced him dead.

Five people, including the driver of the vehicle that hit Shakoor's car, have been taken into custody, the police said.

The minister was alone and himself driving his car, Islamabad police chief Nasir Akbar Khan told reporters.

Images carried by local broadcaster Geo News showed Shakoor's damaged vehicle sitting in the middle of the road, surrounded by a chasm of onlookers.

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.