ISLAMABAD: A global media rights organization on Wednesday called for an independent international investigation into a Pakistani journalist’s murder in Kenya last year in October after two UN special rapporteurs wrote to the Pakistani and Kenyan authorities to highlight their inability to cooperate and conduct any serious investigation.
Arshad Sharif was shot and killed by the police in the African state that said his vehicle had sped up and drove through a checkpoint outside the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Later, the police authorities expressed regret over the incident, saying it was a case of “mistaken identity” during a search for a similar car involved in a child abduction case.
Sharif, who became increasingly critical of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment after the ouster of former prime minister Imran Khan from power in April 2022, decided to leave his country just a few weeks before his murder to avoid arrest on charges of maligning state institutions. He briefly spent some time in the United Arab Emirates and ultimately arrived in Kenya.
The UN special rapporteurs took up the issue with the Pakistani and Kenyan authorities in October this year, mentioning the circumstances in which Sharif had to leave Pakistan and deploring lack of serious investigations in both countries.
“The letters from the UN experts are unequivocal,” Arnaud Froger, head of Reporters Without Border’s investigation desk, said. “There has been a clear lack of will on the part of both Kenya and Pakistan to establish the precise circumstances of this journalist’s murder and identify those responsible.”
“At this stage, the preliminary investigation in Kenya has been botched and the investigation by the Pakistani security services has been very one-sided,” he added. “In view of the presumed involvement of the security forces of both countries in this murder, only an independent international investigation would be able to establish the facts. This is what RSF fervently seeks.”
The statement added that its own investigation into the matter highlighted many inconsistencies and biases in the Kenyan and Pakistani investigations, and the lack of cooperation between the two countries in their desultory efforts to identify those responsible.
The media rights organization maintained that international law required the investigation to be prompt, effective and thorough, independent and impartial, and transparent, adding the preliminary probe of Sharif’s murder seemed to satisfy none of these elements.
Sharif’s wife, Javeria Siddique, also filed a lawsuit against Kenyan police in October.