LAHORE: Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah has claimed stage actress Kismat Baig was killed over professional jealousy by her ‘promoter’ whom she allegedly had an affair with, while PML-N worker Samia Chaudhry died of drug overdose.

He was talking to the media outside the Punjab Assembly here on Friday. The minister said Rana Muzammil murdered Kismat for not following his orders.

“The actress refused his orders at which he had her killed by assassins,” he said.

On Nov 23, Hina Baig alias Kismat and her driver were shot at by three gunmen while on their way to Canal Bank Scheme. The two died of severe bullet injuries 18 hours after treatment at Services Hospital.

Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera said no arrests had been made but he echoed the law minister’s remarks that the actress was killed over professional jealousy. He claimed police have identified the killers and that efforts were being made to arrest them, adding Muzammil had hired three hitmen to kill the actress.

Says PML-N worker died of drug overdose

A senior police officer on condition of anonymity told Dawn Muzammil had confessed to his crime that he wanted to teach Kismat a lesson for refusing to act in his play in Faisalabad. The suspect also revealed that he paid Rs500,000 to the assassins to only injure the actress, adding they were conducting raids to arrest the killers.

Moreover, the minister said Samia Chaudhry’s postmortem report did not reveal the cause of death and no mark of torture was found on the woman’s body. Police authorities had sent her lungs to the Punjab Forensic Science Agency to ascertain the exact cause of death that revealed the woman was an addict and had died of drug overdose, he claimed.

Samia, a resident of Sahiwal, had been living in a room of the Federal Lodges, Chamba House, since Nov 22. She was found dead by a waiter. She had been staying at the lodges allegedly with the reference of PML-N MNA Chaudhry Muhammad Ashraf from NA-161, Sahiwal.

Sana alleged the woman had bribed the receptionist to get the room. “Anyone who wants to stay in the lodges needs a proper identification with an identity card or a reference,” he said.

SSP Sukhera also claimed the woman managed to reserve the room with the help of a receptionist, adding he did not know whether she bribed the receptionist.

Samia’s husband, Asif Mehmood, told Dawn there was no development in his wife’s murder case and he was not satisfied with the investigation. He said police were only investigating him and his family. They have called him to Lahore twice to take back his wife’s luggage and car, but refused to hand them over to him and were using her car themselves.

He said police were troubling him so much that he would stop following the case. “I have not seen any forensic report and am waiting for it,” he added.

Published in Dawn December 3rd, 2016