SC rejects JIT formed to probe Arshad Sharif murder, orders formation of new body

SC rejects JIT formed to probe Arshad Sharif murder, orders formation of new body. Hours after the government established a joint investigation team (JIT) to probe Arshad Sharif’s murder, the Supreme Court rejected it and asked a new one be formed.

“Federal government should immediately form a new investigation team. The court wants an independent team to investigate the issue,” remarked Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Ata Bandial as the Supreme Court resumed the hearing of the suo motu case of Sharif’s murder.

Earlier today, the government had formed a five-member JIT to probe Sharif’s murder following the registration of the first information report on the court’s order.

Read more: FIR lodged against Arshad Sharif’s murder on Supreme Court’s orders

The IG Islamabad constituted the JIT today to investigate Arshad Sharif’s murder and named DIG headquarters as its chairman.

Arshad Sharif’s murder was ‘planned’: fact-finding team

Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif was killed as part of a plan, according to details of the fact-finding committee’s report on the journalist’s killing in Kenya.

According to the fact-finding report, the statements of Khurram, who was driving the vehicle carrying the slain senior journalist in Nairobi, are full of contradictions and the Kenyan police did not provide any assistance in the investigation of Sharif’s murder.

The report has been submitted to the Supreme Court, which took suo motu notice of the journalist’s killing a day back.

Sharif was shot dead in Nairobi on the night of October 23 under mysterious circumstances by the police. The local authorities claimed that the journalist was killed in a case of mistaken identity after which Kenya’s Independent Policing Oversight Authority (IPOA) launched an investigation, the report of which has not been released yet.

Pakistan’s fact-finding team under Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Athar Waheed and Intelligence Bureau’s (IB) Omar Shahid Hamid, travelled to Kenya for an investigation and prepared a report.

The report stated that Sharif was issued a UAE visa on June 20, 2022 and the visa was valid until August 18, 2022. When Sharif went to Kenya, his visa had 20 days remaining and he applied for a new visa on October 12, 2022, but his application was rejected.