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An Islamabad district and sessions court stopped proceedings in the case of journalist Arshad Sharif\u2019s killing<\/a> due to a \u201clack of interest\u201d from the prosecution, it emerged today.<\/p>\n On September 9, a civil judge-cum-judicial magistrate had issued<\/a> non-bailable arrest warrants against the spouse of the slain journalist \u2014 who was shot dead<\/a> in Kenya in October last year \u2014 the producer of a private television channel, and other witnesses for repeatedly failing to appear before the court to record their statements in the case.<\/p>\n Reportedly, Judicial Magistrate Abbas Shah repeatedly summoned Sumiyya Arshad, producer Ali Usman, and other prosecution witnesses to record their testimony in the trial but due to their failure to appear before the court, warrants were issued.<\/p>\n In March this year, the judge had issued bailable arrest warrants against all the witnesses to procure the attendance but to no avail.<\/p>\n Sources privy to the court proceedings told Dawn<\/em> that the judge was supposed to submit a report to the Supreme Court regarding the developments in the Arshad Sharif murder case, but the absence of witnesses was hampering the progress. Therefore, the warrants were issued to take the case to a logical conclusion, sources added.<\/p>\n However, speaking to a private TV channel, Summaiya had said she had not received the summons from the court and added that she learned about her warrants through media reports.<\/p>\n She said the case in which she was being summoned was not registered on the family\u2019s complaint, but proceedings were initiated on a complaint lodged by the state. The wife of the slain journalist said she only knew about the Supreme Court\u2019s suo motu case regarding the murder of her husband and added that she was present and available on all of the dates.<\/p>\n During the hearing on Tuesday, the prosecution witnesses again failed to turn up, leading the judge to stop proceedings. In the order, a copy of which is available with Dawn.com<\/em>, the judge said that the challan of the case was received by the court on March 16 while the prosecution witnesses were summoned on April 5.<\/p>\n \u201cThereafter, repeated summons were issued to the prosecution witnesses but none of them appeared before the court for recording of evidence which shows [a] lack of interest of [the] prosecution in recording of evidence in the instant case,\u201d the order said.<\/p>\n \u201cNeedless to mention that more than 15 opportunities were given to the prosecution to produce evidence,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n It said that a notice had been issued to the state during the previous hearing, inquiring why the case file should not be archived in the record room.<\/p>\n The order said the public prosecutor appeared and recorded his statement in which he said that \u201cprivate as well as official witnesses of the instant case are not turning up for evidence, therefore, case may be filed\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIn view of the above, proceeding of the instant case file is hereby stopped. Complainant\/prosecution is at liberty to apply for fixation of date when the prosecution\/complainant produce all the prosecution witnesses on any date,\u201d the court ordered.<\/p>\n The judge directed that the completed case file be placed in the record room until further orders.<\/p>\n A fierce critic of the incumbent government and the country\u2019s military establishment, Sharif had left Pakistan in August 2022 after multiple cases of sedition<\/a> were registered against him in different cities. It was reported that he initially stayed in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) after leaving Pakistan and later went to Kenya, where he was murdered.<\/p>\n Initial reports on his killing by the Kenyan media quoted local police as saying that Sharif was shot dead by police in a case of \u201cmistaken identity\u201d. But later reports from the Kenyan media reconstructed the events surrounding the killing, stating that an occupant in Sharif\u2019s car at the time of his killing was believed to have shot at paramilitary General Service Unit officers.<\/p>\n The Pakistan government subsequently formed a team<\/a> that travelled to Kenya to investigate the killing. A progress report of the murder probe was furnished<\/a> before the Supreme Court \u2014 which has taken suo motu notice of the case \u2014 in March.<\/p>\nThe case<\/h2>\n