ISLAMABAD, 13 June 2007 — A junior federal minister resigned yesterday after police named him as a suspect in the death of a Canadian woman at their shared home in Islamabad.
Shahid Jamil Qureshi, minister of state for communications, announced his resignation at a news conference in Islamabad after talks with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz. Police charged Qureshi for keeping the woman in illegal confinement that resulted in her death.
Pakistani newspapers have reported that relatives of Kafila Siddiqui have accused Qureshi of holding her against her will at the house they shared in Islamabad.
Qureshi said yesterday that he believed she died of natural causes and that allegations from her family were “baseless.” He said he was “ready to face any legal proceedings” resulting from the investigation.
Javed Iqbal Cheema, a Interior Ministry official, said Qureshi brought Kafila to a hospital here on Saturday, where she was pronounced dead.
Investigators named the minister as a suspect in their probe, he said. Qureshi has not been arrested, and Cheema said he was cooperating with police. Cheema said an initial examination found no marks on the woman’s body and that it was premature to say if there was foul play until an autopsy and other analyses were complete. About 10 domestic staff working at the house were also being questioned, he said.
“We are collecting evidence and the minister has been barred from leaving the country by putting his name on an Exit Control List,” Islamabad police chief Zafar Iqbal told the Dawn newspaper. Cheema said Pakistani authorities received a request some time ago from the Canadian government via Interpol seeking information about the woman’s whereabouts.
