Funeral prayer held for deceased PTI leader

Awais Gardezi is reported to have committed suicide.

BAHAWALPUR:

Funeral prayers for Awais Gardezi, the former deputy district nazim in Bahawalpur and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader, was held at 3pm on Saturday at the Central Eidgah.

A number of politicians attended the funeral prayer.

His family reported that he had committed suicide on Friday evening.

Aziz Gardezi Advocate, his brother, said the family were at their lands in Iqbal Nagar in Jamaluddinwali on Friday when they heard a gunshot at Awais Gardezi’s dera.

He said the family found that Awais had a bullet wound in his head. He said the body was taken to the Jamaluddinwali Rural Health Centre.

He said Awais was 50 years old. He said the family did not wish that a postmortem be formed but the police did not respect their wish.

Rahim Yar Khan SP (Headquarters) Tanveer Hussain Tunio arrived at the hospital as did Awais’s brother Aziz Gardezi Advocate, Tehseen Gardezi, former advisor to the Chief Minister Makhdoom Ali Akbar Mahmood, Maqsood Gilani, Hamid Gilani and Pakistan Muslim League-Functional District General Secretary Mukhtar Ahmad Jam.

Awais Gardezi was a cousin of the PML-F member Makhdoom Ahmad Mahmood and Makhdoom Ali Akbar Mahmood. Gardezi had joined PTI a few months ago in the presence of PTI. He was also the younger brother of former federal minister Tasneem Nawaz Gardezi.

He joined PTI a few months ago in the presence of PTI chairman Imran Khan.

Rahim Yar Khan DPO Sohail Zafar Chattha said that the appropriate legal process had been followed. “There was a gun in his hand and he was lying on a sofa when the police arrived. The evidence we collected suggests a suicide,” he said. He said the incident was reported at 2:30pm-3pm.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 18^th, 2012.