Finally, it was up to the Supreme Court to order the government to file a first information report after journalist Arshad Sharif was brutally murdered. The administration should have carried out this action as soon as it learned that a journalist had been shot and died in Kenya. Ironically, the Supreme Court ruling has been applauded by all major government officials, including Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif. A larger bench presided over by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, heard the case and mandated that the FIR be filed by tonight. The jury also included Justices Ijazul Ahsan, Jamal Mandokhail, Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, and Mohammad Ali Mazhar. The government has now acted, but the court has not received the findings of a fact-finding committee established to look into the situation. The case’s central issue is the murder of a Pakistani national who also happened to be a journalist. It was the government’s primary responsibility to uncover the scheme and bring the murderers to justice. Instead, the government has delaying the release of the fact-finding committee’s report for a while now. The delegation visited Kenya before returning to Pakistan. Tragically, despite the passage of 43 days, the report was delivered to the court. The foreign ministry ought to have taken the initiative to contact the foreign government and seek justice since the murder took place in Kenya.
The fact-finding committee, tasked with investigating the case, was established in questionable ways. The investigation’s collection of inquiries was of modest significance, but more crucially, there was no registered murder case. Without a doubt, journalists speak the truth. In the case of Arshad Sharif, it should be remembered that he was a well-known journalist and also supported the opposition to the government. Journalists are sources of information. The suo moto case has significant weight because it was discussed three days after PTI president Imran Khan wrote a letter to CJP Bandial requesting that he establish an impartial judicial investigation into the death of Sharif. But why do the Supreme Court and politicians like Imran Khan need to become involved in a case? The government ought to own up to its negligence in this situation.
