Pakistan

Saleem Shahzad commission summons 16 senior journalists

The commission has asked journalists to provide information and help the investigation move forward.

Rabia Mehmood July 06, 2011

ISLAMABAD: The judicial commission probing Saleem Shahzad’s murder summoned 16 senior journalists in their next meeting to be held on July 9.

The list of journalists asked to appear before the commission includes Hamid Mir, Zahid Hussain, Talat Hussain, Naseem Zehra and Matiullah Jan, Aizaz Syed, Umer Cheema and president APNS Hameed Haroon among others.

The commission has asked journalists to provide information and help the investigation move forward.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) provided the probe commission with names of ten journalists who are willing to come forward and help. The names are not disclosed to the media.

Ali Dayan Hassan of the Human Rights Watch along with Shahzad's brother-in-law, have been summoned as well.

Ali Dayan, besides Hameed Haroon, had received an email from the slain journalist informing them of threats to him from the ISI.

The commission instructed the Interior Ministry to order FIA to preserve and submit the email record of the slain journalist.

The PTA failed to submit Shahzad’s cell phone record to the commission in this meeting. The PTA has contacted the service providers and asked to preserve the call records.

Secretary of Judicial Commission, Taimoor Azmat said that mobile phone and email record of the murdered journalist will be acquired soon. He added that the Interior Ministry will be requested for providing the email record to the commission since the FIA comes under the aforementioned ministry, but the retrieval will be done in the presence of the commission.

An earlier instruction of reaching out to the family, friends and colleagues of the journalist for submitting information voluntarily did not work, hence the commission has decided to summon those who could be of any help, the federal information secretary said.

He was speaking to the media in Lahore.

IG Punjab and IG Islamabad, who are a part of this commission as well, were instructed to share their independent police findings to the commission.

COMMENTS (5)

Jahanian Shah | 13 years ago | Reply A rentier army prostituting itself to the willing punter...and now a murder most foul which has ISI written all over it. The cabal of GOCs who run this army have become a mortal threat unto this country, eveything and anything can not be swept away by using that most repeated phrase, "it is a fabrication and a figment of the imagination". This one might just become a stickler for them given the massive SIGINT resources of a 'benefactor' country that we are hosting and the article in the NYT from Monday 04 July suggests as such. Surely, this had to be sanctioned at the highest level from the 'Aabpara lads' or 'ladettes', for real men with functioning frontal lobes do not act in a direction so grievous that they shorn those of hope who thought they could still make a difference.

Analyst | 13 years ago | Reply Hopefully this commission will not add insult to injury. The killing of the journalist was most barbaric as he was tortured to death. Could they not have just shot him ?

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Mirza | 13 years ago | Reply Most Pakistani media is working for some agency. That does not mean they should be tortured and murdered, by out of control and lawless agencies. There are almost no independent journalists in Pakistan and are paid by local or foreign employers. It does not mean that none of them would tell the truth about the murder of their fellow/friend journalist? In other words, are you trying to say that all Pakistani journalists would lie under oath to protect the killers?

Umer | 13 years ago | Reply Funny! asking journalists who are close to the ISI to comment

Tauseef | 13 years ago | Reply These type of journalist are working for CIA and what happen with them is good. They should be treated like this.

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