Yousuf Gilani holds telephonic conversation with abducted son
33
MULTAN: Former prime minister of Pakistan and veteran Pakistan Peoples Party leader Yousuf Raza Gilani on Sunday held an eight-minute long telephonic conversation with his abducted son Ali Haider Gilani, DawnNews reported.
“My son Ali Haider Gilani told me that he is happy and safe at [an] unknown place,” Yousaf Raza Gilani told AFP after the phone call.
“He enquired about the health of his mother and other family members. He declined to disclose more and said that Almighty Allah will surely help us. He said that he is safe and sound and we should not be worried about him."
The veteran PPP leader was attending a Qul Khawani in Multan's Jalalpur Pirwala area, along with Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mehmood Qureshi, when his son's abductors sent a text message to former PPP MPA Dr Javed Siddiqui with an Afghanistan phone number asking to be contacted on the given number.
Gilani subsequently called the number and held an eight-minute telephonic conversation with his kidnapped son. The teary-eyed former premier said he was happy to have spoken with his son.
Ali Haider Gilani also spoke to Shah Mehmood Qureshi and told him that that he was doing well.
“The call was made from [an] unknown place, probably from Afghanistan. Gilani [junior] told me that he is happy and in the safest place and that he was seeking God's help to see his family soon,” Qureshi told reporters.
Read: Ali Haider Gilani, son of former PM, kidnapped
Ali Haider Gilani was abducted from Multan on May 9, 2013 outside a Pakistan People’s Party office.
Also read: Video shows Gilani’s abducted son in chains
He was leaving a PPP street corner meeting outside the house of a supporter at Matti Tal Road in Farrukh Town when he was kidnapped.
Explore more: Shahbaz Taseer, Ali Haider Gilani in Afghanistan: Punjab home minister
Ali Haider Gilani's abduction was the second high-profile kidnapping after Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer's son Shahbaz Taseer who was kidnapped from Lahore on Aug 26, 2011 in the morning near his company’s head office.
Read more: Slain Salman Taseer’s son kidnapped
Taseer was driving towards the offices of the First Capital Group off M.M. Alam Road in Gulberg when he was intercepted by the kidnappers.
