ISLAMABAD: A leader of former prime minister Imran Khan’s political party told a news conference on Wednesday Arshad Sharif’s killing in Kenya was masterminded in Pakistan and he was shot from close range.
According to the authorities in the East African country, the Pakistani journalist was killed Sunday night when the car he was in sped up and drove through a checkpoint outside the Kenyan capital, prompting police to open fire. Nairobi police say the shooting was being treated as a case of mistaken identity.
However, Faisal Vawda, who served as federal minister for water resources in Khan’s administration, called Sharif’s “murder” premeditated while claiming that he was shot by someone inside his vehicle.
“It is not like 20 bullets were fired and Arshad Sharif was martyred,” he told journalists at the National Press Club in Islamabad. “In my estimation, Arshad Sharif was shot from inside the car or at close range.”
He said the slain Pakistani journalist had only received “two bullets in his chest and head.”
Vawda maintained no one would find Sharif’s cellphone or laptop since all evidence in the case had already been erased. He said he knew all these facts since he had never lost contact with the journalist.
The former federal minister refused to identify anyone behind Sharif’s killing, though he said he had named them in a video and given “millions of dollars” to kill them if he was shot.
He also maintained the establishment had played no role in Sharif’s killing since he had positive relations with them.
Vawda said he foresaw plenty of blood and funerals in the coming days, adding he was willing to share all the evidence in Sharif’s murder case with his party chairman along with the top intelligence agencies of the country.
Pakistani opposition politician says Arshad Sharif murder premeditated, was shot from close range from inside car
https://arab.news/v2nka
Pakistani opposition politician says Arshad Sharif murder premeditated, was shot from close range from inside car
- Faisal Vawda says slain Pakistani journalist had only received "two bullets in his chest and head"
- Says Sharif’s cellphone or laptop could not be found as all evidence in the case had been erased
Pakistan launches final polio drive of 2025 as official calls disease persistence an embarrassment
- Sindh chief minister says Muslim-majority countries have eliminated polio by ensuring universal vaccination
- Sindh chief minister says Muslim-majority countries have eliminated polio by ensuring universal vaccination
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan launched its final nationwide polio vaccination campaign of 2025 on Monday as a senior government official described the continued presence of the disease in the country as an embarrassment and said the only way to eradicate it was to vaccinate every child under the age of five.
The campaign, which will run from Dec. 15 to Dec. 21, aims to administer oral polio drops to more than 45 million children across the country, according to the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC).
Pakistan is one of only two countries in the world, along with Afghanistan, where polio has not yet been eradicated.
“There is only one way to eliminate this disease, and the entire world has adopted it: every child under the age of five must be given two drops of the polio vaccine,” Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah said while inaugurating the campaign in Karachi.
“There is no other way.”
Shah said it was “quite embarrassing” that polio continued to persist in Pakistan, noting that around 30 children had been infected so far this year, including nine cases in Sindh province.
He added that many Muslim-majority countries had successfully eliminated polio by ensuring universal vaccination of children.
To ensure the safety of vaccination teams, authorities have deployed around 21,000 security personnel nationwide, including about 1,000 women, to accompany frontline polio workers during the campaign, Shah said.
According to the NEOC, more than 23 million children will be vaccinated in Punjab, over 10.6 million in Sindh, about 7.2 million in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and more than 2.6 million in Balochistan.
The campaign also targets around 460,000 children in Islamabad, 228,000 in Gilgit-Baltistan and more than 760,000 in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Health authorities have urged parents to cooperate with vaccination teams, open their doors to polio workers and ensure that all children under five receive two drops of the vaccine, while also completing routine immunization schedules for infants up to 15 months old.
Pakistan has struggled for decades to eradicate polio due to misinformation, vaccine hesitancy and security challenges, despite repeated nationwide immunization drives.
