Islamabad police register FIR of Arshad Sharif murder on SC’s orders

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad police on Tuesday registered a first information report (FIR) against the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif on orders of the Supreme Court.

The complaint was lodged by the station house officer (SHO) of the Ramna police station, Rasheed Ahmed, and nominated three persons — Waqar Ahmed, Khurram Ahmed, and Tariq Ahmed Wasi.

The FIR invoked sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

Earlier in the day the CJP had taken suo motu notice of Sharif’s “brutal killing”.

The development came three days after PTI chief Imran Khan penned a letter to CJP Bandial, asking him to conduct an independent judicial inquiry into the killing of Sharif, who was shot dead in Kenya on Oct 24.

A larger bench, headed by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, heard the case.

The court ordered the relevant agencies to give a copy to the court by tomorrow and CJP Bandial noted, “The FIR should be lodged by tonight (Wednesday).”

The hearing was postponed till tomorrow while the court awaited the inquiry report of the government-formed committee that looked into the killing.

The CJP questioned why the court had not yet received the fact-finding committee’s report during the hearing. 

The additional attorney general informed the court that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah was in Faisalabad when the report was received. “The report will be handed over to the SC once Sanaullah peruses it,” he said.

“A journalist was killed. It should be revealed who was behind the killing,” the CJP remarked, adding that the fact-finding committee which had travelled to Kenya had been back in Pakistan for some time. “Why has the final report of the government formed commission not been provided to the SC?”

The additional attorney general responded by saying the report would be submitted by tomorrow. However, the CJP told him to submit it today so the hearing could continue tomorrow.

“[We] have been waiting for the report for the past 43 days,” CJP Bandial said, terming Sharif’s medical report to be “unsatisfactory”. “We are taking the matter seriously. That is why a five-judge bench was constituted.”

Justice Ahsan remarked that Sharif was killed in Kenya under “suspicious circumstances”. “What action has the foreign ministry taken?” he asked.

In August, after a number of cases were filed against him, Sharif departed Pakistan. According to reports, he had been living in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) before moving to Kenya, where he was killed by gunfire.

Initial reports in Kenyan media said that Sharif was killed by police in a “mistaken identity” incident.

But later reports from the Kenyan media reconstructed the events surrounding the killing, stating that an occupant in Sharif’s car at the time of his killing was believed to have shot at paramilitary General Service Unit (GSU) officers.