ISLAMABAD – A sacked judge of the Islamabad High Court (IHC), Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui, has announced he will plead the case of slain Pakistani journalist Arshad Sharif in the Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Arshad Sharif, a Pakistani journalist, writer and television news anchor, specialised in investigative journalism and covered many political events in the country for national and international media. He was chased out of Pakistan by registering dozens of criminal cases against him and then brutally murdered in Kenya on October 23, 2022.
President Arif Alvi had sacked Siddiqui on October 11, 2018, after the Supreme Judicial Council found him “guilty of misconduct” over a speech he delivered against Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency in July before the Rawalpindi District Bar Association.
After pursuing his own case of removal as a senior judge of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for more than three years, Siddiqui finally decided to start law practice and plead cases in the Supreme Court, all high courts and Shariat Court.
Taking to Twitter on Thursday, Siddiqui announced that he held a meeting with Arshad Sharif’s mother and other family members at their home and discussed the slain journalist’s murder case. He said that Arshad Sharif’s family had authorized him to make decision in this case.
آج ارشد شريف کی والدہ مُحترمہ اور فيملی کے ديگر افراد سے اُن کے گھر مُلاقات کی اور مُقدمہ کے حوالہ سے تفصيل کے ساتھ بات ہوئی، خاندان کے تمام افراد نے مُکمل اعتماد کا اظہار کرتے ہوئے مُقدمہ کی پيروی کے ساتھ مُقدمہ کی بابت ہر قسم کا فيصلہ کرنے کا اختيار تفويض کيا، الحمداللہ
— Shaukat Aziz Siddiqui ASC (official) (@ShaukatAzizSid1) February 16, 2023