The government reduced the size of a team established to look into the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya from three to two on Wednesday by excluding an Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) official, leaving only representatives from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and the Intelligence Bureau (IB) on the team.
To begin with, the interior minister on Tuesday assembled a trio of investigators to look into the slaying: Lt Col Saad Ahmed of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), FIA director Athar Wahid, and IB deputy director general Omar Shahid Hamid.
The IB and FIA officials were the only ones identified in the Ministry of Interior’s notification, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com. It made no mention of why the ISI official was left out.
The announcement stated, “The team will immediately fly to Kenya,” and added that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Pakistan’s High Commission in Nairobi, Kenya, will assist the committee members’ visit.
It was said that the committee would give the interior division a copy of its report.
Postmortem completed
A team of eight top doctors conducted Sharif’s postmortem, according to Dr. Khalid Masud, the hospital director at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (Pims), who spoke to Dawn.com later in the day.
Masud, Professor SH Waqar, Professor Dr. Mumtaz Khan Niazi, Professor Dr. Farrukh Kamal, Dr. Irshad Hussain, Professor Nasreen Butt, Professor Altaf Hussain, and Professor Mohammad Umar Farooq made up the team.
According to the advice of the medical staff, he claimed that the journalist’s X-ray had been finished while the CT scan was in progress.
Masud stated that Sharif would probably subsequently be moved to the mortuary at the Quaid-e-Azam International Hospital.
However, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif declared on Tuesday that a judicial committee would be established to investigate the journalist’s killing amid widespread criticism and sorrow.
He had stated that the panel will be in charge of establishing the facts of the “tragic occurrence in a clear and definitive manner” in a video message from Saudi Arabia.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) director Athar Wahid, Intelligence Bureau (IB) deputy director general Omar Shahid Hamid, and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) lieutenant colonel Saad Ahmed have been assembled into a three-person team by the government to investigate the incident.
Gen. Iftikhar emphasized the significance of obtaining answers to the questions of who forcibly removed Sharif from Pakistan, where he resided during that period, and what circumstances led to this incident.
“Unfortunately, accusations are made and institutions are held accountable at all of these levels. Therefore, this rumor needs to be cleared up and put to rest, he stated.
