CJP Umar Ata Bandial takes suo motu notice of journalist Arshad Sharif’s murder

Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial on Tuesday took suo motu notice of the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya with a larger bench scheduled to take up the case shortly.

“The journalist community in the country 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,” said the apex court in a statement announcing the suo motu action.

The court said that the CJP has issued notices to the interior secretary, foreign secretary, information secretary, director generals of Federal Investigation Authority (FIA), Intelligence Bureau, and president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists.

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The statement said that the apex court will hear the case today at 12:30pm before a five-member larger bench headed by the CJP.

Apart from the CJP, the bench will include Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar.

PTI has constantly asking the Supreme Court to look into Sharif’s death.

While PM Shehbaz has also written to the CJP for the formation of a judicial commission to investigate Sharif’s killing. A demand also made by the slain journalist’s mother.

Sharif was killed on the night of October 23 in Kenya by the Kenyan GSU officers in mysterious circumstances as he was being driven to Nairobi.

The Kenyan police has claimed that the journalist was shot in a case of mistaken identity, however, the details that emerged later contradicted the claims.

The Pakistani government had formed a two-member team, including the Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) and Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials, to probe the murder.

The team traveled to Kenya and UAE to gather evidence and prepared a report which has been submitted to the Interior Ministry.