Early hearing of suo motu: Slain journalist’s mother files plea in SC

ISLAMABAD: The mother of Arshad Sharif, the slain journalist, prayed to the Supreme Court to fix the case of his son in the week commencing from 27-11-23.

She filed an application for early hearing of the suo motu. She said due to the pendency of the matter before the apex court, investigation of the case is going nowhere. The applicant being matter of deceased Arshad Sharif and other family members are lurking in uncertainty and dejected due to the state of affairs.

The case was heard last on 13-06-23 and thereafter, the matter was not fixed despite delicacy and sensitivity of the matter.

SC turns down application of Arshad Sharif’s mother

In the last hearing, a five-judge bench, headed by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Mandokhel, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, turned down Arshad’s mother’s application to direct the Special Joint Investigation Team (SJIT) to record the statements of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and others.

In the application, which she had filed through advocate Shaukat Siddiqui pleaded that former prime minister and Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Imran Khan, PTI’s former ministers, Faisal Vawda and Murad Saeed, CEO ARY News Salman Iqbal and journalist/vlogger Imran Riaz Khan, who had claimed with “all certainty to this affect”, join the investigation, and the JIT be directed to probe them for collecting evidence against the real perpetrators.

She submitted that investigation of the case at first instance be conducted and proceeded in Pakistan where conspiracy to kill the journalist was hatched. She had requested the court either to supply fact finding report and other reports or allow the counsel to inspect/peruse these reports with permission to take notes, but on unwillingness of the attorney general for Pakistan no order to this effect was passed.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023