HYDERABAD: Ghulam Qadir Marri, a close associate of former president and Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari, has gone missing along with his driver and two other people.

Mr Marri’s brother, Ismail Marri, confirmed late on Friday that the vehicle of his brother was found abandoned near the Jamshoro thermal power house in the evening. “My brother was returning from Naudero,” he said.

The three other people who have gone missing with Mr Marri have been identified as Khan Mohammad Mangi, said to be a secretary of Mr Marri, Sajjad Arain and driver Mehboob Khaskheli.

Mr Marri owns rich agricultural land in Tando Allahyar and lives in Darya Khan Marri’s village. According to family sources, he is suffering from multiple ailments. He looks after agriculture lands and related matter of top PPP leaders.

He accompanied Mr Zardari during his visit to Hub in the third week of March for a political gathering. He is said to be quite close to Mir Munawar Talpur, husband of Mr Zardari’s sister Faryal Talpur.

A Sindh Assembly’s permanent pass of Mr Marri was found near the vehicle.

Hyderabad DIG Khadim Rind confirmed that Mr Marri’s vehicle was found abandoned near the power house. He, however, said that police were now clueless about the incident.

Jamshoro SSP Tanveer Alam Odho said that data of CCTV cameras installed in some areas on the Indus High­way was being analysed, but so far there was no evidence as to how Mr Marri and other three people went missing.

It is a third noteworthy case in a row of political importance as far as the Sindh police are concerned. A few days back Ashfaq Leghari went missing or was kidnapped on the Super Highway. Mr Leghari is said to be working for the Omni group’s Dubai office. He went missing in the area of Gadap police station.

A couple of days back Nawab Leghari, a former adviser in the Sindh government, was whisked away by unidentified people in Islamabad. Until recently he was residing in Hyderabad’s defence area and only in recent past had shifted to Islamabad.

Published in Dawn, April 8th, 2017