Islamabad police register case of Arshad Sharif's murder on SC's orders

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad police on Tuesday lodged a first information report (FIR) against the gruesome murder of Arshad Sharif after almost a month's delay on the orders of the Supreme Court of Pakistan.

Sharif was brutally killed in Kenya.

The case has been registered against three people -- Waqar Ahmed, Khurram Ahmed, and Tariq Ahmed Wasi -- at the Islamabad's Ramna Police Station on the complaint of the federal government.

The development comes hours after the court ordered the government to register an FIR of the journalist's murder and submit the report of the fact-finding committee as well.

Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial — heading a five-member bench including Justice Ijaz Ul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar — issued the directives earlier today during the hearing of the suo motu notice of the journalist's killing.

“The journalist community in the country and the public at large are deeply distressed and concerned about the death of the senior journalist and are seeking the court's scrutiny of the matter,” the apex court said as it announced the suo motu action. 

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and other political parties have constantly been asking the Supreme Court to look into Sharif's death.

Prime Minister Shehbaz has also written to the CJP for the formation of a judicial commission to investigate Sharif's killing. A demand was also made by the slain journalist's mother. 

Sharif was killed on the night of October 23 in Kenya by the Kenyan GSU officers in mysterious circumstances as he was being driven to Nairobi.

The Kenyan police have claimed that the journalist was shot in a case of mistaken identity, however, the details that emerged later contradicted the claims.