LAHORE, Jan 31: A Pakistan People’s Party city office-bearer was gunned down allegedly by two unidentified assailants on Wetman Road in Mughalpura on Saturday.

The motive behind the murder has yet to be ascertained.

Malik Shahid Imtiaz, vice-president of PPP’s Lahore chapter and a candidate for PP-145 in the 2008 general election, was going by a car to his Shadipura residence (Baghbanpura) from The Mall along with his cousin, Malik Aamir, when two armed men, riding a bike, approached him in front of the railway flats.

The assailants fired a single bullet at 52-year-old Imtiaz, a father of three, which first pierced through the closed windowpane of the vehicle and then hit him in the heart. The accused managed his escape. Imtiaz was taken to Shalimar Hospital by his cousin where he was pronounced dead.

Mughalpura SHO Qamar Abbas told Dawn that the victim was sitting on the front seat while his cousin was driving the vehicle at the time of the incident.

He said initial investigation revealed that Imtiaz, who owned several mills, had no political rivalry and was considered a thorough gentleman.