Justice (r) Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui has said that he decided to take up Arshad Sharif’s murder case after he noticed that there was no one else willing to come forward to represent the slain journalist’s family in the court.
The former Islamabad High Court judge made the remarks while talking to anchorperson Talat Hussain on his programme.
“No one from the entire country came forward to accept his case,” Siddiqui said. “It made me emotional; the fact that a man who had such a huge following had no one to represent him in this system.”
He also lamented that the political party that Sharif sacrificed everything for, the same people who were using his death for their own gains, did not put forth any representative from their legal team to take up the case.
The former judge told the anchorperson that late Arshad Sharif’s family viewed him as “Godsent” for the cause.
When asked if he was charging them anything, Siddiqui said, “No, they insisted on paying my fees but I told them that there are different modes of payment and my payment would be in the form of your prayers.”
In a 592-page fact-finding report earlier submitted to the apex court, the murder was a “planned targeted assassination” purportedly involving “transnational characters”. The investigators had disputed the version of the Kenyan police that the killing was a “case of mistaken identity”. Sharif was reportedly shot in the head by the police after he and his driver allegedly breached a roadblock that had been set up by the police to check vehicles.
On Feb 13, the Supreme Court was apprised that the Kenyan authorities were not granting access to the team probing the murder.
The remarks were made as the court resumed the suo motu hearing into the case. A five-member bench, comprising CJP Umar Ata Bandial, Justice Ijaz-ul-Ahsan, Justice Jamal Mandokhel, Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, are a part of the bench hearing the case.
In a 592-page fact-finding report earlier submitted to the apex court, the murder was a “planned targeted assassination” purportedly involving “transnational characters”.
The investigators had also The former judge lamented that the party the slain journalist sacrificed everything for did not have one individual in their legal team who could represent him. Siddiqui said that late Sharif’s family views him as ‘Godsent’ for the cause.disputed the version of Kenyan police that the death was a “case of mistaken identity”.
According to The Star, Sharif was shot in the head by the police after he and his driver allegedly breached a roadblock that had been set up by the police as a checkpoint to check vehicles.
— Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui ASC (official) (@ShaukatAzizSid1) February 21, 2023
