Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court on Wednesday ordered the government to set up a new team of investigators to probe the killing of senior journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya even as a media report claimed that the killing was a planned assassination. Sharif, 49, a former reporter and TV anchor with ARY TV, was shot dead at a police checkpoint at an hour's distance from Nairobi on October 23, creating a storm in Pakistan.
The apex court heard the suo motu case for the second consecutive day with Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial heading a five-member panel of judges, including Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Mandokhel, Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar. On Tuesday, an FIR was lodged by SHO Rasheed Ahmed by nominating three main suspects, including Waqar Ahmed, Khurram Ahmed (one of the primary accused), and Tariq Ahmed Wasi.
The court ordered a new special joint investigation team (JIT) by Thursday, comprising intelligence officials from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), the Intelligence Bureau (IB), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the police. The court has not formed a judicial commission as it is a criminal case, Chief Justice Bandial observed.
The JIT is expected to build on the 592-page report of the fact-finding committee which comprised two senior police officers who visited Kenya to gather facts about the killing. The Express Tribune newspaper reported that the fact-finding team has concluded that his killing was a case of planned and targeted assassination by transnational characters and not a case of mistaken identity as claimed by the Kenyan police.
According to the team's report, the transnational roles of individuals from Kenya, Dubai, and Pakistan cannot be ruled out in the case. The four GSU (General Service Unit) police officials and OC GSU Training camp had been used as instruments in this case under influence, either financial or some other compulsion, it stated. The report stated that Waqar who sponsored and hosted the journalist was connected to Kenya's National Intelligence Service (NIS) and other international agencies and law enforcement.
It further said that the fact that Waqar handed over Sharif's personal cell phone and iPad to a NIS officer, rather than to the police, 'established' his link with the NIS. His linkage with national and international agencies provides a scope of possibilities of transnational characters in this case. The report also said that the narrations presented by Khurram, who drove the vehicle prior to Sharif's murder, regarding the sequence of events and the crime scene, were contrary to logic and facts, and that there were no penetration marks of a bullet on Sharif's car seat.
Rather, the journalist was hit from the back and the bullet exited from the right side of his chest. The report maintained that Khurram's narrative did not match his (Sharif's) sitting position, the position of the gunners as well as the line of fire. The report also declared that the Kenyan police's claims of portraying the incident as a case of mistaken identity was also full of contradictions and that the statements given by the GSU police officials contradict themselves. Their version of events is not believable.
It further said that the post-mortem report in Pakistan identified that four fingernails of the slain journalist's left hand were missing, giving rise to speculation that Sharif had been tortured before his death. However, it continued, that while the Kenyan post-mortem did mention "fingernails" taken as DNA samples, it did not mention how many fingernails were taken.
Keeping in view the apparent differences in the two post-mortem reports, there is no concrete evidence to establish that Arshad Sharif was tortured before the killing, the report said. Moreover, the fact-finding team stated that there were "compelling reasons for Sharif to leave Pakistan due to the criminal cases registered against him in different districts of the country and that he was asked to leave the UAE by Emirati authorities.
The report also highlighted the five principles of international criminal law that invoke the criminal jurisdiction of any country. These principles include the territorial principle, nationality principle, passive personality principle, protection principle, and universal principle. The FIR was launched on Tuesday after the apex court directed the government to register the case of the killing of Sharif who left Pakistan in August, apparently due to pressure for supporting former premier Imran Khan. (PTI)
