Photo courtesy Supreme Court of Pakistan
Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial on Tuesday took suo motu notice of the brutal killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya, with the first hearing to be held the same day at 12:30 p.m.
“The journalist community in the country and the public at large are deeply distressed and concerned about the death of the senior journalist and are seeking the court’s scrutiny of the matter,” read a press release issued by the Supreme Court. It said the case had been fixed for hearing at 12:30 p.m. today (Tuesday) before a five-member larger bench that would be headed by the CJP.
The five-member larger bench, per the Supreme Court, would consist of the CJP and Justices Ijazul Ahsan, Jamal Mandokhail; Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, and Muhammad Ali Mazhar.
The Supreme Court further said that notices had been issued to the secretaries of interior, foreign affairs, and information and broadcasting, as well as the director-generals of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Intelligence Bureau, and the president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ).
Sharif was shot dead near Nairobi on Oct. 23, with Kenyan police claiming it was a case of “mistaken identity.” However, as investigations into the killing progressed, questions were raised over the possibility of Sharif being the victim of a targeted killing, with Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah saying more information was needed about the incident.
Last month, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had written to the CJP requesting the formation of a judicial commission to probe the matter. This was followed up by a letter from the deceased journalist’s mother, who had also requested the formation of a judicial commission to probe the killing. Last week, PTI chief Imran Khan too penned a letter to CJP Bandial, asking him to conduct an independent judicial inquiry into the killing of Sharif.