ISLAMABAD: The Minister for Electricity, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, escaped an attempt on his life in G-10/4 on Thursday, the police said.

Mr Rathore, who is the son of former Prime Minister Mumtaz Rathore, was staying with his cousin in G-10/4 and was travelling to Kashmir House for a meeting when gunmen opened fire on his official vehicle in street 43.

“He was saved because he ducked when the fire started,” a police official said, adding that another man accompanying the minister in his car also remained safe.

The police collected evidence from the site of attack and also moved the minister’s car to the police station.

The minister told the police that the gunmen had been waiting for him and had started firing when they saw his car approach. The police said Mr Rathore had enmities in his native town in Kashmir as well as in Islamabad.

The minister had been booked along with a few others by the district police of Haveli, Azad Kashmir after five were killed and many injured during a clash between PPP and PML-N workers when they were campaigning for the upcoming elections.

Mr Rathor was not available for comment despite repeated attempts.

PPP Senator Saeed Ghani issued a statement in which he condemned the attack on the party’s candidate in the Kashmir elections.

In the statement, he said the attack was carried out in Islamabad, when the minister was on his way to Kashmir House after he had obtained bail in a case registered against him by the PML-N.

He said the case is fake and that the attack on Mr Rathore was proof that PML-N knows it will lose in a free and fair election.

PML-N always has a fake mandate and PPP is once again going to win the AJK elections and will certainly form the government, the statement says.

Published in Dawn, July 15th, 2016