Saleem Shahzad murder: Probe commission to be formed soon, says Rehman Malik

Commission to include a member each from the Islamabad police, Punjab police and journalist community.

ISLAMABAD:

Interior Minister Rehman Malik has announced that the government will constitute a judicial commission to investigate the murder of journalist Saleem Shahzad.

“The commission will include a member each from the Islamabad police, Punjab police and journalist community,” Malik told reporters who besieged him outside Parliament House on Friday.

Malik earlier addressed protesting journalists at the National Press Club, Islamabad, but had to leave as furious reporters raised slogans, disrupting his speech. They also demanded that a Supreme Court judge be nominated to the commission instead of the government’s proposed high court judge. But outside, Malik stopped short of naming judges as part of the commission.

Meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) has demanded that the government of Pakistan establish a judicial commission by June 10 to investigate the disappearance and murder of Shahzad.

“The IFJ fully backs a call by its affiliate Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) for the government of Pakistan to establish a judicial commission,” said IFJ in its statement.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 4^th, 2011.