ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Tuesday welcomed the decision by the country’s top court to take suo motu notice of the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif, saying the government would fully cooperate in the probe.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial on Tuesday used Pakistan’s so-called “suo moto” provision — which allows him to take up cases on his own initiative — to set up a bench of five judges to supervise an investigation into the killing of the prominent television journalist in Kenya in October.
Sharif left Pakistan in August over threats to his life and after a slew of court cases related to charges of treason and others were registered against him. He was killed by Kenyan police on the outskirts of Nairobi on October 23, in what police said was a case of “mistaken identity” during the search for a car involved in a child abduction case.
But a two-member Pakistani fact-finding team that visited the East African state subsequently called the killing a “targeted assassination.”
“I welcome Supreme Court taking suo motu notice of the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif ... The government will extend full cooperation to the Court.” PM Sharif tweeted.
The court said it had sought initial responses from the Pakistani foreign office, interior ministry, information secretary and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ).
“The journalist community 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,” the court said in a statement.
Sharif worked for many years as a prime-time television news show host for ARY News in Pakistan. In the last year of his life, he was known to be a harsh critic of the military and a supporter of ex-PM Imran Khan.
Khan has said Sharif had been murdered for his journalistic work and called for a judicial investigation.
