Islamabad, June 12: A scandal involving the mysterious death of a Canadian woman at the residence of minister for communications Shahid Jamil Qureshi in Islamabad has rocked the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) government.

While the Islamabad police has registered a case against Qureshi after a complaint was filed by the woman’s brother Mustafa Qayyum, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz called his cabinet colleagues today and obtained the minister’s resignation.

Qureshi has denied any involvement in the death of 40-year-old Kafila Siddiqui at his Islamabad home. He said that Siddiqui was not confined at his home for three months, as claimed by Qayyum.

“I have voluntarily submitted my resignation to the Prime Minister and time will tell that I was innocent,” Qureshi said at a news conference in Islamabad, three days after Siddiqui’s death.

“I have been falsely implicated in the case,” said Qureshi, who took Siddiqui to a local hospital early on Saturday where she was declared dead.

The initial post-mortem report said there were no signs of torture on Siddiqui’s body, who had dual Canadian-Pakistani nationalities and used to live with Qureshi.

The minister said he resigned as he did not want his official position to influence the investigations. “I will now face investigations with an open mind,” Qureshi added.

Home ministry spokesman Javed Cheema said the police had arrested 10 persons in connection with Siddiqui’s death. A statement from the minister has also been obtained, Cheema said.

A spokesman for Islamabad police said yesterday that the minister would be interrogated by a five-member probe panel in the next few days. “It will be too early to say if Siddiqui was murdered,” the spokesman added.

Scribe reprimanded

The supreme court reprimanded a senior journalist today over a report related to President Pervez Musharraf’s suspension of Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry.

The court interrupted a hearing on Chaudhry’s appeal against his suspension to summon Mohammed Saleh Zaafir over a report in The News that the government was looking into the alleged misconduct by four more supreme court justices.