LONDON: A fact-finding committee formed to investigate the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif believes that the slain journalist’s laptop is in the possession of firebrand PTI leader Murad Saeed.
FIA’s director Dr Ather Waheed and IB Deputy Director-General Omar Shahid Hamid are investigating the case.
The investigators have asked the former minister of communications to hand over Sharif’s laptop to the fact-finding committee formed by the government of Pakistan on November 28.
When contacted by The News, Saeed refused to comment on the FIA communications with him; however, the former minister shared a copy of the letter he had written to the fact-finding committee, expressing his dissatisfaction.
The inquiry committee wrote to Saeed they had reason to believe that he was holding Sharif’s Apple MacBook.
“Therefore, you are requested to provide the device of the deceased enabling the fact-finding team to ascertain the facts regarding the assassination of the journalist in Kenya,” the committee said in the letter.
Signed off by Dr Muhammad Ather Waheed, the letter to Murad Saeed says: “You are requested to cooperate with the fact-finding team as we have to submit the report with Human Rights Cell of the Supreme Court of Pakistan, wherein it has been directed to share the inquiry report”.
In his letter to the FIA fact-finding committee dated November 21, Saeed expressed reservations and refused to cooperate with the fact-finding committee.
The PTI lawmaker wrote: “The mother of Shaheed Arshad Sharif has already expressed her reservations and concerns regarding the investigation into the assassination of her son by the current government. She has appealed for justice and expressed dissatisfaction over the govt of Pakistan’s handling of the matter. She clearly stated: “I have no faith in the Pakistani government”.
Saeed wrote to the committee he is “willing to appear before the judicial commission constituted by the august Supreme Court of Pakistan and present all the information he has on the matter”.
The fact-finding team has also asked Tasneem Haider Shah, a resident of London, UK, to appear before the committee on November 28 and provide evidence in support of his claim that Sharif’s iPad and iPhone are in the possession Nasir Butt, another London-based individual.
Shah claims that Waqar and Khurram, who hosted Arshad Sharif in Kenya at Tariq Wasi’s request, were controlled by Butt.
Pakistan’s top investigative journalist Arshad Sharif was killed on October 23 in Kenya by the General Service Unit (GSU) officers when he was on his back from AmmoDump to Nairobi. Khurram Ahmad was driving the car when Sharif came under attack.
