US and Afghan forces have found the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister alive in an operation in Afghanistan, the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement issued Tuesday.

US and Afghan forces have found the kidnapped son of a former Pakistani prime minister alive in an operation in Afghanistan, the Pakistani foreign ministry said in a statement issued Tuesday.

Ali Haider Gilani, son of Yousaf Raza Gilani, "has been recovered today in a joint operation carried out by the Afghan and US security forces in Ghazni, Afghanistan", the statement said.

Preparations are being made to return him to Pakistan following a medical check-up, it said, but offered no further detail.

"We are aware of the report," a spokesman for the NATO-led international coalition in Afghanistan told AFP without confirming it, adding that more details would be provided once they were "available for release".

Afghan defense, interior and security officials, as well as provincial officials in Ghazni, were also unable to immediately confirm the statement.

Ali Haider Gilani's brother Abdul Qadir Gilani told AFP that his father was in Afghanistan.

"I have not yet spoken to him and will confirm only after my father confirms it to us, because there have been rumors about his release earlier also which were untrue," he said.  

The foreign ministry statement comes three years after Gilani was kidnapped by suspected Taliban militants in a hail of gunfire on May 9, 2013 in Pakistan, two days before the national election in which he was campaigning.

Gunmen on a motorbike opened fire before abducting him in a black Honda car on the outskirts of Multan in Punjab province. His secretary and a bodyguard were killed, and four people were wounded.

In May last year he was able to phone his father to tell him he was well.
The statement comes two months after the kidnapped son of another Pakistani politician was also freed.