��������

ISLAMABAD: The wife of slain journalist Arshad Sharif and senior media personalities renewed their demand for a judicial commission to probe his killing this week, as they observed his third death anniversary in a solemn gathering at the National Press Club (NPC) in Islamabad. 

Sharif, an outspoken critic of Pakistan’s government and its powerful military, was killed when police shot at his car on the outskirts of Kenya’s capital Nairobi in Oct. 23, 2022. Kenyan police later said the killing was a case of mistaken identity. However, a team of Pakistani investigators who probed his alleged murder, released a report in December 2022 saying that Sharif’s killing was a “planned, targeted assassination.”

Sharif, who hosted a current affairs show on a local television channel, had to leave the country after several cases related to charges of sedition and others were filed against him shortly before his killing. He was believed to have been in the United Arab Emirates since he left Pakistan and had traveled to Kenya where he was killed.

The late journalist’s mother had also written a letter to Pakistan’s then chief justice in November 2022, demanding a “high-powered judicial commission” probe Sharif’s killing. She had demanded the inclusion of senior Supreme Court judges in the commission. 

“My demand is that there should be a judicial commission to probe Arshad Sharif’s murder,” Javeria Siddique, Sharif’s widow, spoke at a gathering held at the NPP on Thursday to pay tribute to Sharif on his third death anniversary.

“Because the constitutional bench is not taking up our case like the way it should be taken, I want the serving judges to hear this.”

As per the Pakistan-based media and development sector watchdog, Freedom Network, around 151 journalists and media workers were killed in Pakistan from May 2000 and August 2024. Sharif’s killing also highlighted the dangers journalists in Pakistan face amid growing censorship and press freedom violations in the country. 

Siddique urged Pakistani journalists and members of the civil society to stand united in seeking justice for Sharif’s killing. She called on all media stakeholders and journalists to meet the chief justice. 

“They should demand that journalists, who form the fourth pillar of the state, should not be harassed,” she said. “Arshad Sharif should get justice immediately and those 14 journalists killed in the last two years should also get justice.”

’VERY HIGH-PROFILE MURDER’

Afzal Butt, president of the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ), said the complexity of the case required that it be probed internationally.

“This is a very high-profile murder. It happened in a foreign country,” Butt noted. “It cannot be probed by the police of Kenya or the police of Pakistan alone.”

He demanded a UN fact-finding commission be set up, one that can investigate Kenyan government officials and take statements from them and their Pakistani counterparts.

The PFUJ president urged the Supreme Court to take up Sharif’s killing with urgency. 

“We request the chief justice of Pakistan, Justice Yahya Afridi and the head of the constitutional bench, Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan, to immediately investigate the suo motu case taken in connection with Arshad Sharif’s murder,” he added. 

Siddique said she was also pursuing the case internationally, calling on journalists to pursue the UN and the European Union for a probe too. 

“The case is going on in Kenya, and I have filed an appeal in the Supreme Court,” she said. “The issue is that the case is not being heard here in Pakistan.”

NPC President Azhar Jatoi echoed the family’s demand for a judicial commission and described the situation as “deeply concerning.”

“The requirement of justice is that the demand of his family should be met,” he said. “The demand is for the judicial commission.”

Jatoi noted that it was becoming increasingly unsafe for journalists to work in the country. He said some journalists were killed this year while others were intimidated and harassed, lamenting that Pakistan was among the “top 10 most dangerous countries for journalists.”

 “It is a very difficult time. Journalists are in danger of losing their lives,” Jatoi noted. “They do not have the freedom to write. The use of pens is restricted.”

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s stand-in Twenty20 captain David Miller and fast bowler Gerald Coetzee have been ruled out of the limited-overs tour of Pakistan, Cricket South Africa said on Thursday.

Miller was due to lead the T20 side in the three-match series, which starts on Tuesday, but strained a hamstring in training and is out of the tour.

Coetzee will miss the T20 series and three one-day internationals that follow in because of a pectoral muscle injury, sustained while bowling during the one-off T20 international against Namibia in Windhoek this month.

Matthew Breetzke and uncapped Tony de Zorzi have been added to the T20 squad, while Donovan Ferreira will captain the side. Ottneil Baartman has been named as Coetzee’s replacement in the ODI squad.

The squads are without players being rested after the two-test series against Pakistan, including usual T20 skipper Aiden Markram, batsman Tristan Stubbs and fast bowler Kagiso Rabada. ODI captain Temba Bavuma is also not touring as he works his way back to fitness after a calf injury to be fit for the two-test test series in India next month.

T20 squad: Donovan Ferreira (captain, Titans), Ottneil Baartman (Dolphins), Corbin Bosch (Titans), Matthew Breetzke (Warriors), Dewald Brevis (Titans), Nandre Burger (Western Province), Quinton de Kock (Lions), Tony de Zorzi (Western Province), Reeza Hendricks (Lions), George Linde (Western Province), Lungi Ngidi (Titans), Nqaba Peter (Lions), Lhuan-dre Pretorius (Titans), Andile Simelane (Dolphins), Lizaad Williams (Titans).

ODI squad: Breetzke, Baartman, Bosch, Brevis, Burger, De Kock, De Zorzi, Ferreira, Bjorn Fortuin (Lions), Linde, Ngidi, Peter, Pretorius, Sinethemba Qeshile (Warriors), Williams.