Following the orders of the Supreme Court, the federal government has shared the names of the members of a new joint investigation team (JIT) formed to probe the murder of journalist Arshad Sharif with the apex court.
At the outset of Thursday’s hearing, the federal government informed the court that a new JIT had been formed including DIG Islamabad Owais Ahmed, Director Cybercrime FIA Waqaruddin Syed, Sajid Kayani from Intelligence Bureau, Murtaza Afzal from Military Intelligence and Mohammad Aslam from Inter-Services Intelligence.
The chief justice said that the court just wanted an impartial and transparent investigation. “The JIT can approach the Supreme Court in case it faces any hurdle in its investigation.”
The investigation has nothing to do with finding the truth. The people of Pakistan would watch energy and resources devoted to manufacturing an artificial and imagined truth, which would be drilled into their heads. The fact-finding committee has already submitted its report and revealed that it was unable to find who gave threats to the slain journalist and forced him to leave Pakistan and then Dubai.
The report also said that the main suspects Khurram and Waqar avoided giving details to the team which visited Kenya, earlier this year. Now another committee has been forced which may also visit Kenya, but how come the committee will be able to find the people behind the threats and details from Khurram and Waqar this time?
To find the murderers of Arshad Sharif, what is needed is not an investigation or some fact-finding mission. What is rather needed is the courage and fearlessness to establish this almost public knowledge. Fact-establishing, rather than fact-finding, is the need of the day. And until we are brave enough to tell ourselves the truth, we can never have the courage to utter it out loud. Lies perhaps are the biggest of all crimes and sins.
