Escalating business rivalry between ride-hailing services and conventional means of transport could be a possible reason for an Uber driver's murder in Karachi on Saturday, Karachi West-Zone Deputy Inspector General (DIG), Amir Farooqi, told Dawn.com on Sunday.

The victim, identified as Mirza Shahnawaz Baig, was driving in Karachi's Nagan Chowrangi area on Saturday night when he was fatally shot in the head by unidentified gunmen.

DIG Farooqi said the murder could be motivated by the grudge held by conventional taxi and rickshaw drivers against ride-hailing services such as Uber and Careem, who have taken a sizable chunk of transport business away from the former in the past few years.

The senior police official said the aspect was being considered in the light of similar cases in Karachi and Islamabad.

Farooqui, however, did not rule out 'personal enmity' either, adding that it could also be a motive behind the killing'.

Police found empty shells of a 9mm pistol from the crime scene and sent them for forensic examination to determine if the weapon had been used in any other murder cases.

A first information report, with the 58-year-old victim's son Mohammad Arham as the complainant, was registered at the Taimuria police station, triggering the investigation process.

Last year, a driver working for Uber was found murdered in his car in Karachi's Korangi area.

Meanwhile in Rawalpindi last week, a 22-year-old Careem driver was killed in what police suspected was a robbery gone awry. Another Careem driver was found murdered in Islamabad's G-13 sector last month.