Suspicions of slain Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif’s killing having been financed are not unfounded given how Kenya police are infamous for executing extra-judicial killings, journalist Asad Ali Toor said on Monday.
Toor made the comments in flagship Naya Daur TV show Khabar Say Aagay. Toor said the Kenyan media was not buying the version put forward by police. Antics such as these were not unknown in Pakistan either, he said. The journalist said Sharif had fled the country to save his life due to such happenings.
Former Radio Pakistan DG Murtaza Solangi said all international rights organisations of note must intervene since the killing happened in Kenya and not on Pakistani soil. He said Kenyan functionaries will have to present an answer on who killed Sharif.
Naya Daur Founding Editor Raza Rumi said incidents such as these were not unprecedented in Pakistan. He said reporter Saleem Shahzad had been killed in 2011. Anchor Hamid Mir was shot at. Former Pemra chairman Absar Alam was attacked too. Not much headway had been registered in connection with cracking the cases, Rumi said.
Analyst Muzamal Suharwardy said Sharif had been warring with the very forces that had patronised him. Till date, Suharwardy said, Sharif was not striving for democracy. He said he could not quite fathom why Sharif fled Pakistan when Hamid Mir been living in Pakistan despite surviving a gun attack.
Flagship Naya Daur TV show Khabar Say Aagay streams Monday to Saturday at 9pm.
