Minister of State for Interior Shehryar Afridi on Tuesday claimed a major breakthrough in the investigations into the murder of Maulana Samiul Haq, saying a family person was involved in his assassination. Talking to Business Recorder after addressing a press conference, the minister said that a close relative is involved in the murder of late Maulana Sami but he did not disclose the relation of family person who is found involved in the murder of JUI-S chief.
Maulana Samiul Haq was a prominent religious scholar and chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-S). Maulana Sami was stabbed to death on November 2 when he was taking rest in his bedroom at his house located at Bahria Town, Safari Villas.
Syed Ahmed Shah, the secretary of late Maulana Sami has reportedly been missing from his house in Akora Khattak for the last three or four days. Shah had first found dead body of Maulana Sami in a pool of blood and he informed Maulana Hamidul Haq Haqqani, the son of Maulana Samiul Haq, of his father's death.
Earlier during the press conference when he was asked about murder of Superintendent of Police (SP) Tahir Khan who went missing from the federal capital last month, he said that it is a sensitive issue and he does not want to speak about it.
However, reports are circulating in social media that SP Khan has been killed by a Taliban group in Afghanistan and that his body has been handed over to Pakistani authorities by Afghan officials at Pakistan-Afghan border. The minister said that Prime Minister Imran Khan has issued directives to revise master plan of Islamabad within six months in order to make it in accordance with current needs.
He said that the prime minister has chaired a meeting regarding the matter which was attended by Capital Development Authority (CDA) chairman and officials concerned. Shehryar said that a commission comprising competent persons will be constituted for revision of master plan. All key stakeholders will be consulted before the revision of master plan, he said.
The minister said that master plan should have been revised after every 20 years but unfortunately due to negligence of previous governments, it was not reviewed even after the passage of 58 years. The master plan was developed by a Greek firm, Doxiadis Associates, in 1960. He said that the delay in revision of master plan give birth to deforestation and encroachments in the city.
About anti-encroachment drive, he said that encroachment drive started by the present government is under way with full swing and it will be continued till complete evacuation of state land from the encroachers. The government is collecting data about the CDA officials and police personnel who facilitated the encroachers and strict action will be taken against them after fulfilling all legal formalities, he said.
To a question about Prime Minister Khan's Bani Gala residence, he said for the first time in the history of a political government, the CDA has issued a notice to a sitting prime minister.