Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court (SC) will take up the suo motu notice of the assassination of prominent journalist and anchorperson Arshad Sharif on Monday (today).
A five-member bench of the SC, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial, would hear the case at 1 pm.
The chief justice of Pakistan had taken the suo motu to ensure an independent and transparent investigation into the murder case.
Other members of SC bench
Other bench members are Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.
The court has issued notices to the interior secretary, the director-general (DG) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), the attorney general for Pakistan, the foreign secretary, the president of Pakistan, the Federal Union of Journalists representative, the director-general (DG) of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and others.
According to media reports, the special JIT, formed to probe the murder, will submit its report to the apex court today. The previous week, the team returned to Pakistan after completing an inquiry in Kenya and the United Arab Emirates.
Sharif was shot dead by Kenyan police on October 23 the previous year in a “mistaken identity” case while traveling to the capital Nairobi from the country’s Magadi town.
Kenyan police have claimed the Pakistani journalist was shot in the case of mistaken identity, but the details that emerged later contradicted the claims.
On December 8, 2022, the central government formed a new special JIT to probe the murder of the journalist on the orders of the Supreme Court.
The new JIT included members from the IB, FIA, and the capital Police. The members have included Deputy Inspector General of Police Intelligence Branch Sajid Kiyani, FIA’s Waqarauddin Syed, DIG Headquarters, and Owais Ahmed.
