PESHAWAR, Jan 18: All hopes of finding the missing Punjab minister for sport and culture in the remote Karkarwam have dashed to the ground as the authorities in North Waziristan tribal region contemplate new strategy to trace him down.

Knowledgeable sources in the regional headquarters Miramshah told Dawn on phone that contrary to earlier optimism in the government circles that Mr Naeemullah Shahani could be found in Khasaro in the Karkarwam area near Mirali, the search for him in the lawless tribal region had yielded nothing.

The authorities had earlier given out a list of suspects from the Shogi Alikhel-Torikhel tribe to tribal elders to try and seek out Mr Shahani who had gone missing on Jan 10 while returning from Miramshah.

The Punjab minister, according to officials, had gone to Miramshah to buy smuggled vehicle in the tribal area. He is reported to have bought a Toyota Surf for Rs355,000 and had made a down payment of Rs98,000. Officials claim that Mr Shahani had been in the business for quite some time.

Sources said the Torikhel tribe denied involvement of its men in the kidnapping and offered to handover the suspects to the government to prove their innocence. In line with the agreement, the tribe turned over seven of the suspects while three others were to be handed over to the authorities on Sunday. But, these sources said, the search for Mr Shahani in Karkarwam had ended nowhere and the authorities, frustrated by their failure, were now rethinking their strategy.

They said that all efforts at finding the Punjab minister were now back to square one. "Honestly, we don't know where he is. We thought he was being held in Karkarwam but now it appears he is not there.

Until now we were concentrating on Karkarwam but now we have to look for other places too," said the sources. Embarrassed by their failure to find the minister, government officials who until now were available for comments are now shying away from the media. "The hype created by the media might have scared the kidnappers from making any demand," remarked one government official.