The tragic death of former ARY News journalist Arshad Sharif left everyone shocked and speechless; but the developments during the funeral weren’t any less shocking, with Islamabad-journalist Haider Sherazi questioning the conduct of some anchorpersons and YouTubers on the occasion.
The reporter, Haider Sherazi posted a Twitter thread on Thursday showing a video of a man vlogging while laying inside what seemed to be the empty grave of the late Arshad Sharif. Another scene showed the man sitting near another grave, reciting a ghazal.
ارشدشریف کی قبر میں لیٹایہ نوجوان کون۔۔؟
سوچ رہاتھاکہ ایک شخص کےگذر جانے کےبعدخاموش ہی رہوں لیکن یہ ویڈیو دیکھ کر اب ثبوتوں کے ساتھ لکھناضروری ہے
بحثیت رپورٹرارشدکےگھر/ہسپتال میں موجود تھا میری آنکھوں نےبہت کچھ دیکھا
اہم سوال کہ ان(یوٹیوبرز)کاسلسلہ کہاں جاملتاہے
نشاندھی کررہاہوں pic.twitter.com/fS2UpKA8OA— Haider Sherazi (@ImHaiderSherazi) October 28, 2022
Haider Sherazi noted that the same man is later seen talking to anchorperson Sami Ibrahim about Faisal Vawda —who was expelled from the PTI a day earlier— urging Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan to purge the party of all ‘traitors’.
“Right when the slain journalist’s body was inside his house, slogans were raised outside, with people calling Faisal Vawda a traitor, Nawaz Sharif a thug, and slogans being raised against the Pakistan Army,” Sherazi maintained.
He added that at the conclusion of the ‘media talk’, the anchorperson and the unidentified vlogger left the scene together. Sherazi recalled that Sharif’s family repeatedly asked the protesters to avoid raising slogans in respect of the journalist, and to make way for family members.
گھر والے کہتے رہے یہاں فیملی ہے میت رکھی ہے نعرے نہ لگائیں حتی کہ کاشف عباسی جو بڑے سنجیدہ آدمی ہیں تین بار خود چل کر منع کرنے آئے(ویڈیو میں دیکھا جا سکتا ہے)مگر ویوز کی دوڑ اور خاص پروپیگنڈہ کے لئے یہ کمپنی اپنا کام کرتی رہی
حالانکہ ارشد شریف کی والدہ نے نعرے بازی سے منع کیا تھا pic.twitter.com/sPUdI7lWpX— Haider Sherazi (@ImHaiderSherazi) October 28, 2022
“Journalist Kashif Abbasi approached the protesters thrice and asked them to not chant, but to no avail,” he said, noting that the ‘media talk’ kept proceeding despite the visible annoyance of family members and close friends.
“What we saw afterwards were some YouTube videos carrying provocative captions,” he added. Concluding, Sherazi urged all against publicity stunts and political point-scoring out of someone’s funeral.
Arshad Sharif was murdered early morning on October 24 when the Kenyan police in Nairobi shot him dead in the head allegedly for not stopping at a police checkpoint. While many people, including journalists, are of the opinion that Sharif was ‘murdered’ in a deliberate attack, the Kenyan police claims that the journalist was shot by the police in a case of ‘mistaken identity’.
