ISLAMABAD: Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial on Tuesday took suo motu notice of the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya, a larger bench will hear the case soon.
“The journalist community and the public at large in the country are deeply saddened and concerned over the death of the senior journalist and are demanding the court to look into the matter,” the Supreme Court said in a statement announcing the Somoto action.
The court said that the Chief Justice has issued notices to the Home Secretary, Foreign Secretary, Information Secretary, Director Generals of Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), Intelligence Bureau and President of Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.
The statement said that the Supreme Court will hear the case today at 12:30 PM before a 5-member larger bench headed by the Chief Justice.
Besides the Chief Justice, the bench includes Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandukhel, Justice Mazahir Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazahar.
PTI has been continuously asking the Supreme Court to look into Sharif’s death.
While Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has also written a letter to the Chief Justice to form a judicial commission to investigate Sharif’s murder. The mother of the slain journalist also demanded.
Sharif was killed in Kenya on the night of October 23 by Kenyan GSU officers under mysterious circumstances while he was being taken to Nairobi.
Kenyan police have claimed that the journalist was shot in a case of mistaken identity, but details that emerged later contradicted those claims.
The Pakistani government formed a two-member team to investigate the murder, comprising officials from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB).
The team visited Kenya and the United Arab Emirates to gather evidence and prepared a report which has been submitted to the Ministry of Interior.
