The Supreme Court of Pakistan is pursuing a new strategy to probe the murder of one of the country's star journalists, Arshad Sharif, who died under mysterious circumstances while in Kenya.
The special Joint Investigation Team (JIT) submitted a report to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, January 4, indicating that it had resorted to visiting Kenya on January 15 to conduct the grilling of officers linked to the mysterious murder.
The team also revealed that it would obtain the original postmortem results from the Kenyan Government and subsequently deposit the document at the country's apex court.
The move was widely seen as a breakthrough after reports emerged that the country's Interior Ministry had failed to avail the funds to support JIT members' travel to Africa.
The members had, reportedly, requested Ksh14 million as facilitation fee to cover travel and accommodation costs for the five members.
The team also suffered a setback at the beginning of 2023 after its Kenyan Embassy failed to approve visas for them to fly in and grill the police officers involved in the incident.
The Embassy had argued that it was too early for the probe to take place since the officers were still away on the Christmas holiday.
JIT team had planned to visit Kenya during the first week of January 2023 and made necessary visa applications.
Kenya reportedly advised SJIT to apply afresh for visas and meetings after Sunday, January 15.
Sharif was shot dead at a police roadblock during his stay in Kenya towards the end of October 2022.
According to the foreign detectives, the investigative journalist was tortured by his captors for hours before his demise. This was corroborated by a report indicating that the injuries inflicted in the body were 12.
This contradicted the postmortem conducted in Kenya, which claimed only two injuries were recorded.
In addition, a report filed by one of the GSU officers manning the roadblock claimed that they retaliated after Sharif and the man driving the vehicle opened fire on them.
