Slain Pakistani journalist’s wife seeks UN probe into ‘targeted killing’

Islamabad, Nov 1 (EFE).- The wife of a Pakistani journalist killed in a police shooting in Kenya sought a UN investigation on Tuesday because she did not trust Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government to probe her husband’s alleged targeted killing.

In an interview with EFE, Javeria Siddique, also a journalist, rejected the Pakistan government’s three-member commission formed to probe the killing of Arshad Sharif.

“We reject this commission and demand the UN form a commission to investigate the killing,” Siddique said.

She said her journalist husband faced life threats in Pakistan before fleeing to Kenya.

The claim about life threats contradicts the narrative peddled by Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

ISI chief Lt.Gen Nadeem Anjum told an unprecedented press conference last week that the journalist faced no threat in Pakistan.

But Siddique said that was not true.

“There were threats against him so he left the country otherwise who leaves his home in two clothes,” she told EFE.

She said her family was still under pressure and would not name those involved in the assassination until the UN set up an international commission.

She raised several questions that forced her husband to flee the country.

“Who registered treason and several other cases against Arshad,” she asked. “Who gave death threats and put a head money on him?”

Siddique said her husband left Pakistan for Dubai, where the authorities asked him to leave, despite a valid visa.

She said he had no visa for any other country on his passport and landed in Kenya as it offers a visa on arrival for Pakistanis.

After the removal of the then prime minister Imran Khan from power in April, Sharif openly criticized the all-powerful military for supporting the change in the government.

Sharif was associated with ARY News for years until August this year.

Siddique said their life had become miserable after the ouster of Khan’s government.

“He told me so many times about his fear that the orders were to kill him not to arrest him,” she said.

The well-known investigative journalist was shot dead in the Kenyan capital last month in what police claimed was a mistaken identity.

Siddique disagreed with the Kenyan police narrative that it was a “mistaken identity.”

The Kenyan police have changed their statements at least two times about what happened that day. EFE