Samia Arshad, the widow of senior journalist Arshad Sharif, received non-bailable arrest warrants from a local court in the federal capital on Saturday.
The prominent journalist and former ARY News anchor was assassinated on October 23 in Nairobi, Kenya, where he was living in exile.
Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah issued the warrants against Samia Arshad and 18 other people as a result of their failure to appear in court as witnesses in the Arshad Sharif murder case.
In the FIR filed on behalf of the state regarding the murder of veteran journalist Arshad Sharif, witnesses include Arshad Sharif’s wife, son, producer Ali Usman, and 16 other people.
According to the family of the deceased journalist, Arshad’s family had previously rejected the FIR since it had been filed on the state’s behalf rather than at their request.
This move is seen as mockery of system who has so far failed to give justice to Arshad Sharif and in fact has delayed the process several times citing different issues.
System is more keen to go after family and loved one of Arshad Sharif rather then finding out the actual culprits. This raises a serious question mark on Pakistan’s judicial system and its authority which is in jeopardy from last one and half years.
Investigative journalist Brian Obuya from Kenya had expressed worries about the delay in the investigation’s conclusions in the slaying of veteran journalist Arshad Sharif.
According to Brian Obuya, the investigation into the death of Arshad Sharif took a very long time to complete.
He mentioned the fact that neither a report after the investigation into the journalist’s slaying case nor the identities of the charged Kenyan police officers were made public.
