A larger bench of the Supreme Court of Pakistan resumed on Monday the hearing of Arshad Sharif murder case with judges raising questions about the investigation carried out so far.

Journalist Arshad Sharif was killed on October 23, 2022, in Kajiado, a remote area of Kenya, when he was living in the country to escape persecution back in Pakistan.

The larger bench under Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Umar Ata Bandial, comprises Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Mandokhel, Justice Syed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar.

At the outset of the hearing on Monday, Additional Attorney General Aamir Rehman told the court that two investigation reports had been submitted to the court, one by the foreign office and the other by the Special JIT – joint investigation team – that visited Kenya.

Justice Naqvi asked if the JIT had found any concrete evidence in Kenya. The JTI Head Owais Ahmed told the court that they were in contact with the officials from Kenya and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Additional Attorney General Rehman said the Kenyan authorities did not allow Pakistani officials to examine the crime scene but the JIT had met with doctors and police officials who carried out the postmortem examination and participated in the investigation, respectively.

The UAE authorities have not allowed them to interrogate people of interest so far, said Rehman.

Owaid told the court that the JIT had not found any critical piece of evidence so far as they were not given complete access by the Kenyan authorities. He also said that Kenyan officials did not hand over Sharif’s iPad and iPhone to Pakistan.

The additional attorney general said that Kenya has indicated its willingness to cooperate on mutual legal assistance.

CJP Bandial said that Kenya is a sovereign country and ‘we’ should not blame anyone. It remains to be seen if the Special JIT conducted the probe in Kenya and UAE in the right direction and whether it was well prepared for such an investigation, said Justice Bandial.

The top judge also said that investigators made mistakes in the Arshad Sharif murder case both abroad and back home. Why and on whose instructions the fact-finding report was released? the CJP asked.

A 592-page fact-finding report was submitted to the court on the last hearing, but the same report was leaked to the internet before the court submission.

The CJP said that the accused must have been alerted by the release of the report. Did the special JIT probe all the points, did it approach foreign intelligence agencies for assistance? he said.

The top judge said that between the time Pakistan made the first contact with Kenya after Sharif’s murder and when the team departed for the country, something went wrong. It is the responsibility of the foreign office to dig it up, he said.