KARACHI, Sept 11: A protocol officer of the finance ministry was found dead on Tuesday in a deserted Gulshan-i-Maymar area, police said, adding that they believe he was kidnapped on his way home on Monday before being shot at twice.

Liaquat Hussain, posted at the National Bank head office, was reported missing by family members when he did not return home till late on Monday. Police said they had been looking for the 50-year-old federal official, when the Gulshan-i-Maymar police reported the finding of a body in the bushes near an under-construction housing project, Garden City.

“It appeared that the victim received a gunshot each on the face and the chest,” said Mir Hussain Lahri, SPO of Gadap. “It looked like a murder after kidnapping as the initial findings suggest the deceased left the office at around 3pm, but did not reach home till late night.”

He said Mr Hussain, resident of Block 14, Federal B Area, was a former protocol officer of Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, when the latter was finance minister, and was currently assigned the same task for Omar Ayub, the state minister of finance.

The body was later taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital for autopsy, which determined that he was killed on Monday night.

“The body was received at 11am but the postmortem report suggests it was found at least nine to 10 hours after the murder,” said the medico-legal officer.