PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Saturday penned a letter to Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, asking him to conduct an independent judicial inquiry into the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif, who was shot dead in Kenya on Oct 24.
In the letter, the former premier said, “Please constitute a judicial commission and take suo motu notice on the assassination of Arshad Sharif Shaheed. This is the demand of the entire nation.”
The party’s Twitter account shared a video of Imran writing the letter and stated, “In this movement initiated by Pakistani citizens, thousands of Pakistanis have written a letter to the chief justice until now.”
The party said that PTI parliamentarians had also filed petitions to the Supreme Court for “clear investigations regarding the Shaheed Arshad Sharif case, Imran Khan assassination attempt case and Senator Azam Swati case”.
Imran and other PTI leaders have been demanding an investigation into the “targeted killing” of the renowned journalist, claiming that he was forced to leave Pakistan and eventually the United Arab Emirates as well — where he had stayed for a short time before heading to Kenya.
Initially, Kenyan media quoted the local police as saying Sharif was shot dead by police in a case of “mistaken identity”.
The PTI’s parliamentarians have also been holding protests for fair investigation and justice regarding the alleged torture, “violation of privacy of home” through a purported video leak and the “illegal arrest” of Swati on Nov 27.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif had last month announced that a judicial commission would be formed to probe the matter and subsequently wrote to the CJP about his request.
The journalist’s mother had also penned a letter to the CJP on November 2 requesting the formation of a high-powered judicial commission to investigate the murder.