ISLAMABAD —
Pakistan will hold a formal inquiry into the
killing in Kenya of a top TV news anchor who fled the country to avoid sedition
charges, the prime minister said Tuesday.
اضافة اعلان
Arshad Sharif, a strident critic of Pakistan’s
powerful military establishment and supporter of former premier Imran Khan,
died when Kenyan police opened fire on his car at a roadblock outside the
capital at the weekend.
Kenyan officials say it was a case of mistaken
identity, as officers thought they were firing on a stolen vehicle involved in
an abduction.
“I have decided
to form a Judicial Commission to hold an inquiry into the killing of journalist
Arshad Sharif in order to determine the facts of the tragic incident in a
transparent and conclusive manner,” Prime Minister
Shehbaz Sharif tweeted on
Tuesday.
Mainstream and social media in Pakistan were rife
with speculation that Sharif, who had spoken publicly about death threats
against him, had been deliberately targeted.
“It was a planned assassination,” tweeted Shireen
Mazari, a Khan loyalist and cabinet minister in his previous government,
calling the official version of events a “lie”.
“We know, you know so don’t in our time of grief add
to our anger also.”
Sharif fled the country in August, days after
interviewing senior opposition politician Shahbaz Gill, who said junior
officers in Pakistan’s military should disobey orders that went against “the
will of the majority”.
The comment led to the news channel being briefly
taken off air and an arrest warrant issued for Sharif.
Gill was detained following the interview, and
Khan’s criticism of the judiciary over the detention led to his own appearance
in court.
Pakistan has been ruled by the military for several
decades of its 75-year history and criticism of the security establishment has
long been seen as a red line.
It is ranked 157 out of 180 countries in a press
freedom index compiled by Reporters without Borders, with journalists facing
censorship and intimidation.
The
Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said the
establishment had “a long, grim record of violent tactics to silence
journalists”.
Journalist Hamid Mir, who has survived at least two
assassination attempts, cautiously welcomed the inquiry.
“Please remember that a judicial commission
comprising three supreme court judges was announced in 2014 to investigate
assassination attempt on my life in Karachi,” he tweeted.
“I got six bullets. Eight years have been passed and
I am still waiting for the commission report.”
The killing has also sparked outrage and suspicion
in Kenya, where earlier this month, President William Ruto disbanded a police
unit accused of extrajudicial killings, and vowed to overhaul the country’s
security forces.
Sharif’s body was due to be returned to Pakistan on
Wednesday, his wife tweeted.
Read more Region and World
Jordan News
.jpg)
.jpg)
