Arshad Sharif murder case: Probe still under way, Senate panel told

ISLAMABAD: The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Monday informed a parliamentary body that the two-member team constituted to investigate senior journalist Arshad Sharif’s murder case has yet not finalised its report as many aspects of the case are still under investigation.

A senior official of the FIA, while briefing the Senate Standing Committee on Interior which met with Senator Mohsin Aziz in the chair regarding the investigation of the Sharif murder case, said that the two members, FIA Director Athar Wahid and Intelligence Bureau (IB)’s Deputy Director General Omar Shahid Hamid, have visited Kenya and will also visit another country. “The team has so far not finalised its report as many things related to the case are yet to be probed,” he said, adding that the report would be finalised soon and the committee would be informed regarding the progress of the investigation.

Senator Azam Nazeer Tarar said that the government has formed an inquiry commission to probe the case, while the FIA is also continuing the probe. The case has been taken up in the Supreme Court as well, as Sharif’s family moved to another court; therefore, no more forums should be established on the matter. “We need to wait till the decision of the court and the committee also needs to avoid discussion over the subjudice matter”, he said.

When the committee took up the agenda items regarding the evidence and grounds previously available with FIA on the basis of which the cases of money laundering were registered against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his sons and the reasons for the failure of FIA to produce concrete evidence in the challan submitted before the court which led the acquittal of the accused persons, Senator Sarfraz Ahmed Bugti said that discussion of such kinds of issues in this committee is not appropriate as it will politicise our committee.

Senator Tarar said that according to the court judgment of the money laundering case, the FIA had opposed the acquittal but the court due to the non-availability of evidence acquitted the accused. “According to the rules it was not our mandate to discuss such kind of issues”, he said.

At one stage, Senator Tarar and Rana Maqbool Ahmed exchanged harsh words when Senator Saifullah Abro started a discussion over the matter.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022