ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan has fixed suo motu case of prominent senior journalist Muhammad Arshad Sharif’s assassination for hearing on Thursday.

A five-member larger bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan (CJP) Justice Umar Ata Bandial will conduct the hearing on the case at 1:00 PM on January 5.

Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi, Justice Jamal Khan Mandukhel and Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar are also part of the bench.

The notices have also been issued all the concerned officials including Secretary Interior, D.G. (F.I.A.), Attorney General for Pakistan, Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, President PFUJ, D.G. I.B, Secretary M/o Information & Broadcasting and others.

Following the last hearing of the case on December 7, the federal government informed the Supreme Court that a joint investigation team (JIT) had been formed to probe into the murder of the journalist in Kenya.

The special JIT is led by Islamabad Police DIG Headquarters Awais Ahmed and has four other members — namely Muhammad Aslam from the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Murtaza Afzal from the Military Intelligence (MI), Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Waqaruddin Syed, and Sajid Kayani of the Intelligence Bureau (IB).

A five-judge bench of the SC, led by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial, and comprising Justice Ijazul Ahsan, Justice Jamal Khan Mandokhail, Justice Sayyed Mazahar Ali Akbar Naqvi and Justice Mohammad Ali Mazhar, also instructed the JIT to submit a progress report before the next date of the hearing.

Last month, the CJP had taken suo motu notice of the journalist’s murder. CJP Bandial noted that the apex court wanted an honest and impartial investigation. He hoped that progress would be made in different areas of the probe.

The bench observed that in case the JIT faced any administrative difficulty, it might approach the office of the CJP for its resolution.

Additional Attorney General (AAG) Chaudhry Amir Rehman told the court that the government would fully fund the JIT.

Justice Muhammad Ali Mazhar, however, pointed out that no timeline was being given to the JIT for the completion of the task. The apex court then adjourned the hearing till the first week of January.