Syed Saleem Shahzad. — Photo by AP

ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Monday directed the government to form a judicial commission to probe the killing of journalist Syed Saleem Shahzad.

Earlier, the court had ordered the submission of the entire record of investigations into Mr Shahzad’s killing and asked the government functionaries concerned to explain their position on a petition moved by the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) seeking appointment of a high-powered judicial commission to investigate the case.

On June 17, a bench comprising Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry, Justice Tariq Parvez and Justice Amir Hani Muslim took up the petition filed by the Supreme Court Bar Association’s chief Asma Jehangir on behalf of the PFUJ and asked the secretaries of interior, information and law to submit comments and answer the questions raised in the petition.

A commission set up earlier by the government to investigate Mr Shahzad’s killing was mired in controversy, similar to the one which had erupted after the formation of committee on the covert US attack on Abbottabad.