Recently, Pakistani Journalist Arshad Sharif has been brutally killed in Kenya in mysterious circumstances. The whole Pakistani nation, right now, is on a protest and demanding justice for the late journalist. A lot of people are writing blogs and articles about him. Like everyone, I am also in grief, being a Pakistani. And, I have a lot of things to ask, after this cold-blooded murder.
I am not a person who is much interested in politics. However, I keep a birds-eye view of the country’s political situation. On 24 Nov 2022, like my daily morning routine, I woke up and had a look at my WhatsApp & Twitter newsfeed while having breakfast. I came to know through Whatsapp that one of our country’s journalists, named Arshad Sharif, died in Kenya, accidentally. It was (with an apology) not much effective news for me at that time, as we have become so much insensitive by listening to daily death news in the world.
But, as I kept scrolling through the news, I came to know about the journalist and the background of this incident. A curiosity developed in my mind when I saw people calling him “shaheed”. We all know that it’s not easy to entitle someone “shaheed” unless he/she is on a mission to protect the country’s borders or give life in the way of Allah (Jihaad). There is definitely an absolute criterion for this Rank of Death.
As time passes, I realized that this man was one of the biggest investigative journalists in Pakistan and working on exposing the corrupt Mafia in the country. After knowing this, something broke badly in my heart. I started searching more into this incident. I know that Pakistan is facing deep corruption for 75 years and investigating or raising questions on corrupt mafias never remain an easy job for the country’s journalists or a layman. But, that was not the worrying point for me, at that time. The question that arose raised quickly in my head and shook me was “Wasn’t there freedom of the press in Pakistan?”
All my life, I lived in this country with a belief that my country, its institutions, and the state fully support freedom of expression for every citizen. Media and Journalism are completely free to investigate any matter, except the things that can harm the sovereignty of the country. We are strictly bound to the right to life, and respect differences of opinion among each other. Then, what happened now? Why and Who Killed this Journalist? What was his crime? Where are my country’s policies for journalists’ press freedom? How a Pakistan journalist died in any other country in mysterious circumstances? Why my people are madly shouting that he is “murdered”, not died? Why government media channels are not responding properly to this news? A long list of questions.
My newsfeed on social media remained filled with Arshad Sharif shaheed posts those days and it’s still going on. I realized that there were millions of followers this man had on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. Every 2nd or 3rd Pakistani, out of tens, were condemning his death. In fact, they started calling it murder from the first day and never accepted it as a natural death or any accident. To go a step further, they knew he would be assassinated/killed/murdered because Arshad got a lot of threats to his life from Pakistan’s top official authorities while he was alive.
I strongly believe that there must be a policy on a national and international level where journalist killing must be declared as a huge and unforgiving crime. Journalism must be free in the true sense of the word. No any other journalist must be killed cold-blooded next time.
(To be continued…)
