Islamabad: The chief of a special team of investigators constituted by the Pakistan government to probe the high-profile killing of a senior journalist in Kenya last year told the country’s apex court Monday that authorities in Nairobi were not “granting full access” needed for the investigation.
Arshad Sharif, 49, a former reporter and TV anchor with ARY TV, was shot dead in Nairobi October 23 last year, sending shockwaves across Pakistan.
In December last year, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ordered the federal government to constitute a special Joint Investigation Team (JIT) to probe this case after initial investigation revealed the murder was “premeditated.”
Monday, the five-member Supreme Court bench comprising Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Mandokhel, Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, began hearing the suo motu notice in this case.
During the hearing, the bench was informed by the JIT chief Owaid Ahmed that authorities in Kenya were not granting access to the investigating team.
“Kenyan officials are not granting us full access needed for the investigation,” he told the court.
Earlier, a 592-page fact-finding report presented before the apex court said Sharif’s murder was a “planned targeted assassination” that involved “transnational characters,” according to the Dawn newspaper report.
The investigating team has also contested Kenyan Police’s claims that Sharif’s killing was a case of “mistaken identity.”
During the previous hearing in this case, the Supreme Court urged the investigators to discuss with the foreign ministry the possibility of involving the United Nations in this probe.
During Monday’s hearing, the court observed that something happened after the fact-finding committee’s report was released in Pakistan due to which the Kenyan authorities were reluctant to cooperate with Pakistan’s JIT.
Chief Justice Bandial asked the foreign ministry to find out why Kenyan authorities had initially announced to cooperate but later backtracked.
The hearing in the case was adjourned till the first week of March.
In August last year, Sharif was booked on charges of sedition for interviewing former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s close aide Shehbaz Gill.
In the interview, Gill criticised the Shehbaz Sharif government for trying to pitch Khan against the country’s powerful Army.
Sharif, said to be a supporter of Khan, subsequently fled the country. A month after he left Pakistan, ARY TV fired Sharif, saying he had repeatedly criticised the military on social media in violation of the company’s policy.
Sharif was born in the port city of Karachi and started his journalistic career three decades ago. He was awarded the ‘Pride of Performance’ in 2019 by Pakistan President Arif Alvi.
PTI