ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has set the hearing date for the suo-motu notice in the murder case of senior journalist and former ARY News anchor Arshad Sharif, as reported by ARY News.
Justice Amin-ud-Din Khan has constituted a seven-member constitutional bench to hear the case on December 9. The bench includes Justices Jamal Mandokhel, Mohammad Ali Mazhar, Hassan Rizvi, Musarat Hilali, Naeem Afghan, and Shahid Bilal.
In August 2024, the Supreme Court’s Practice and Procedure Committee, headed by then-Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Qazi Faez Isa, decided by a 2-1 majority to form a five-member larger bench instead of the originally planned three-member bench. While CJP Isa proposed retaining the three-member bench, Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Munib Akhtar voted for expanding it.
This move followed a July 2024 ruling by the Kenyan High Court, which awarded 10 million Kenyan shillings to Arshad Sharif’s family. Sharif was fatally shot in Nairobi on October 23, 2022, in what Kenyan police later described as a case of “mistaken identity.”
Read More: SC’s larger bench formed for Arshad Sharif’s murder case.
Arshad Sharif, living in self-exile in Kenya, was killed under controversial circumstances. Following the incident, his wife, Javeria Siddique, through her lawyer Advocate Dudley Ochiel, urged the Kenyan authorities to release all related evidence, including documents, photographs, videos, and reports, asserting that Sharif’s rights were violated in the shooting.
The Kenyan High Court acknowledged the incident as a rights violation, with the police expressing “regrets” over the “unfortunate incident.”
