December 6 witnessed twists upon twists in the Sharif case: His mother, Riffat Ara Alvi, wrote a letter to the chief justice of Supreme Court, requesting registration of first information report (FIR) of her son’s murder; the Supreme Court (SC) announced suo motu action; the SC directed the government to register FIR; and finally the police registered the complaint at Islamabad's Ramna Police Station.
After a day of rapid developments, the next day, on December 7, at the outset of the SC hearing the Interior Ministry presented a detailed report compiled by a fact-finding committee and the SC directed the government to appoint a joint investigation committee of high-level officials.
Supposedly, Sharif’s murder case is now in hands of savvy investigators. But will they go all out to crack the case?
The letter written by Sharif’s mother is rather damning. She narrates how her son “became very critical of the individuals in military”, who threatened him of “dire consequences” if he did not stop criticizing the military in his programmes. She has nominated “General (retired) Qamar Javed Bajwa, Lt. Gen. Nadeem Anjum, Major Gen. Faisal Naseer, Brig Muhammad Shafiq Malik, Brig Faheem Raza, Col Rizwan, Col Nouman, Waqar Ahmed, Khurrum Ahmed and etc” in the FIR for targeted, premeditated, planned and calculated murder of my son”.
However, the December 6 letter is not the first one written by the slain journalist’s mother. She wrote a letter to the SC chief justice on November 2 as well, wherein she requested him to form a judicial commission to probe into her son’s killing. She also expressed her dissatisfaction over investigations carried out by the Kenyan police, and alleged the "federal ministers of fabricating stories before the departure of the investigation team that are already on media record”.
There is no prize for guessing why the court took notice of her letter now and not earlier. Perhaps, because, she had not nominated Gen Bajwa and other generals in her earlier letter? Perhaps, after the retirement of Gen Bajwa the stage is set to act on the case?
The FIR, that nominates Waqar Ahmed, Khurram Ahmed, and Tariq Ahmed Wasi, was registered on the orders of the Supreme Court. However, it does not nominate army generals named by Sharif’s mother in the letter written to the SC chief justice.
The legal expert says, “JIT including intelligence officials is a fad with SC as there's a general lack of trust in government institutions. By including intelligence officials they pretend to suggest this would do a better job because civilians are corrupt.”
The FIR invokes sections 302 (punishment for murder) and 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC). The report also mentions that under section 3 of PPC (Punishment of offences committed beyond, but which by law may be tried within Pakistan) investigations on crimes committed “beyond Pakistan” may be dealt with according to the provisions of this code.
Further, the two-member fact-finding team, comprising Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) officials, suspects that Sharif’s murder was a “planned targeted assassination” which purportedly involved “transnational characters”. The 592-page report reveals observes that the “transnational roles of characters in Kenya, Dubai, and Pakistan” in this assassination cannot be ruled out.
The report compiled by intelligence officials is detailed and makes startling revelations. Yet the SC has ordered the government to set up a JIT – because, “One, they want to appear to be doing something. Two, this something has to be in addition to what has already been done at least in appearance,” says legal expert Asad Jamal.
He adds, “JIT including intelligence officials is a fad with SC as there's a general lack of trust in government institutions. By including intelligence officials they pretend to suggest this would do a better job because civilians are corrupt. But we know that our intelligence officials have absolutely no idea about investigating criminal cases, and they're highly incompetent in intelligence activity too.”
He concludes on the note that “our judges are our judges. They must show respect to armed forces”.
So, then, will the investigators succeed in unearthing hidden clues? Will the case take turns and twists and bring justice to his family? What’ll be the ultimate twist?