Following Chief Justice of Pakistan Umar Atta Bandial taking suo motu notice on Tuesday over the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif, the Supreme Court has ordered the government to register an FIR by today (Tuesday).
Earlier today CJP Bandial took suo motu notice of the ‘brutal killing’ of journalist Arshad Sharif, who was killed in Kenya in October. In the hearing today, the Supreme Court directed the government to submit the report by the fact-finding committee regarding the case by today.
A five-member bench headed by CJP Umar Ata Bandial and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Mandokhail, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, heard the case. The CJP asked why the report had not been submitted yet.
“The report will be handed over to the SC once the Interior Minister peruses it,” said the additional attorney general, informing the court that Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah was presently in Faisalabad.
Asking if the interior minister has to make changes to the report, the CJP replied that the court could summon Sanaullah if it wanted. “It is the government’s job to investigate not the judiciary’s,” he said.
He noted that the fact-finding committee that had travelled to Kenya to investigate the case had been back in Pakistan for some time. “A journalist was killed. It should be revealed who was behind the killing,” he said, adding, “Why has the final report of the government formed commission not been provided to the SC?”
CJP Bandial said that the court has been waiting for the report for 43 days, and that a five member bench was constituted because they are ‘taking this matter seriously’. Justice Ahsan asked, “Arshad Sharif was killed in Kenya under suspicious circumstances, what action has the foreign ministry taken?”
The CJP ordered the additional attorney general to submit the report by today so that the hearing could continue tomorrow.
