Imran Khan says he asked Arshad Sharif to leave country

PESHAWAR: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has asserted that he had asked slain journalist Arshad Sharif to leave the country after receiving information that anchorperson would be killed, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Addressing a lawyers’ convention in Peshawar today, the former premier called Arshad Sharif a ‘martyr’ and said the slain journalists was victim of ‘targeted killing’.

“Sharif knew his life was in danger and was repeatedly getting threats. I told him to back down but he wasn’t scared and then lastly, this targeted killing. No matter what anyone says, I know that Arshad Sharif became a victim of target killing,” Imran Khan claimed.

Paying tribute to the slain journalist, the PTI Chairman said that Sharif exposed these two families (Sharif and Zardari families) in every programme with proof but no one could scare or buy him.

“Later he [the journalist] started getting threats from unknown numbers to not speak the truth when he started exposing the incumbent regime,” Imran said, adding that he had information that they were about to kill him.

The PTI chief also spoke about the alleged torture that his party member Senator Azam Khan Swati was subjected to after he was arrested by the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) in a case related to controversial tweets.

Speaking about his planned long march to Islamabad, Imran said he was never as resolute on the matter as today since “I’ve decided the country is standing on a crossroad between two paths.”

Arshad Sharif was shot dead in Kenya by the local police on Sunday night along the Nairobi-Magadi highway in a “mistaken identity case”. The official police statement later expressing “regrets on the unfortunate incident” and saying an investigation was underway.

According to Kenyan media, Arshad Sharif was shot in the head and killed by police after he and his driver allegedly breached a roadblock.

Detailing the incident, the Kenyan media quoting the police said that the manned roadblock had received information to intercept a car similar to the one, Arshad Sharif and his driver were in, following a carjacking incident in Nairobi in which a child was allegedly taken hostage.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif announced the formation of a judicial commission to probe the killing of senior journalist and former ARY News anchorperson Arshad Sharif in Kenya.

DG ISPR demands legal action against rumour mongers

Following the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya, Director-General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Babar Iftikhar has demanded legal action against those accusing state institutions ‘without any evidence’, ARY News reported on Tuesday.

Talking to a private news channel, the DG ISPR noted that Pakistan military has urged the federal government to conduct a ‘high-level’ investigation into the killing of Arshad Sharif in Kenya.

“We have requested the government to hold a high-level investigation so that all these speculations can be put to rest,” Babar Iftikhar said in response to a question about the allegations being levelled against the state institutions regarding Sharif’s killing.