Arshad Sharif was born on 22nd February 1973 in Karachi. He was a Pakistani journalist, writer, and television news anchor. He worked with numerous national and international media companies’ and covered on political and defense beat in Pakistan. He was admired greatly by the public for his straightforward and fearless style of journalism.
FAMILY BACKGROUND:
Sharif belonged to a military family. He was the son of a Commander of the Pakistan Navy, Muhammad Sharif TI, who passed away from a heart attack in May 2011. His brother, Ashraf Sharif, who was a Major in Pakistan Army and stationed at Bannu, was martyred on same day while en route to attend his father’s funeral when TTP attacked his car and it went off the road. While preparations were being made for Arshad Sharif’s father’s funeral, news of his brother’s martyrdom also arrived; As a result, two funerals took place in the same house.
ACHIEVEMENTS:
- He received Agahi Award for journalism in 2012.
- In 2016, he won Investigative Journalist of the Year Award for his program Power Play.
- 1n 2018, Sharif won the Current Affairs Anchor of the Year Award
He was awarded Pride of Performance in 2019 by the President
EDUCATION:
Arshad Sharif earned his Master of Science in Public Administration degree from Quaid-e-Azam University Islamabad. While still a student, he started his career as freelance journalism in 1993. He had gripped in investigative journalism.
JOURNALISTIC CAREER:
Sharif’s journalistic career comprises 29 years. He was affiliated with various television channels as a director and an anchor person. Sharif specialized in defense and foreign policy and covered conflicts in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). From London, Paris, Strasbourg, and Kiel, he provided news coverage for prominent Pakistani news agencies. He worked as the news director for AAJ News. The News hired Sharif in 1999. He was the host of the show Kyun and served as the director of news for Dunya News prior to joining AAJ.
In 2011, he served as the bureau chief for Dawn News. His first position in the media was with the weekly magazine Pulse.
Later on in 2014, he started program at “ARY News” and this program “Power-Play”, which became the source of his recognition.
— ARY NEWS (@ARYNEWSOFFICIAL) August 31, 2022
After the outset of PTI’s Prime Minister Imran Khan led government in April 2022, he forced to down screen. Sharif, who was once seen to have strong ties to Pakistan’s military establishment, became a fierce opponent. Sharif got fired by “ARY Network” for violating the TV channel’s policy by frequently criticizing the military on social media.
https://twitter.com/ARYNEWSOFFICIAL/status/1564976020205309954?s=20&t=4fCqRoGG9mI-NTASeqA1iQ
His weekly talk show Power-play got discontinued. After ARY fired him due to government pressure, he continued his journalism on his YouTube channel for some time. Pakistan’s leading newspaper dawn wrote about Sharif, “Earlier this month, the police had booked Sharif, ARY Digital Network President and CEO Salman Iqbal, Head of News and Current Affairs Ammad Yousaf, anchorperson Khawar Ghumman and a producer for sedition over a controversial interview by PTI leader Dr Shahbaz Gill broadcast on the channel on Aug 8.
A day later, the Interior Ministry had cancelled the channel’s no-objection certificate citing “adverse reports from agencies” as the reason behind the decision.
Subsequently, Sharif had left the country.”
WHY HE LEFT PAKISTAN?
Now major question is why Arshad Sharif left Pakistan beside being so patriotic?
The answer is, in response to a citizen’s complaint accusing him of defaming the nation’s national institutions specially the military, Sharif fled from Pakistan to avoid arrest. His movements were unknown to the general public; the majority of his acquaintances only knew that he had visited Dubai.
In August, Islamabad High Court ordered Pakistan’s intelligence agency and police to stop harassing Sharif, after he petitioned the court, through his attorney, claiming that security forces were violating his fundamental rights. Different sources say that he also received death threats during this time due to which he fled to Dubai. “In a statement to the media, Sharif’s lawyer stated: “After over two weeks of Sharif’s stay in Dubai, the Government of Pakistan requested Dubai’s government to deport or send him back to Pakistan.” quote dawn. He recently travelled to Kenya because it was one of the few countries to which offers visa-free travel to Pakistan.”
HIS FINAL DAY:
On 23 October 2022, Sharif was shot and killed by police after the vehicle he was travelling in drove through a checkpoint outside Nairobi rather than stopping, according to the police.” The occurrence was a “mistaken identity,” according to Kenyan police, who were looking for a similar car connected to a child abduction case at the time.”
On social media, there was speculation that he had been murdered despite the Kenyan police’s description of the gunshot as a “mistaken identity” incident.
The death of Sharif was “a big loss to journalism and Pakistan,” according to Pakistani President Arif Alvi. Former Prime Minister Imran Khan said that he was “shocked at the brutal murder of Sharif who paid the ultimate price for speaking the truth – his life”.
Many international news publications including Al Jazeera and BBC also reported the incident. Al Jazeera wrote “Outspoken Pakistani journalist Sharif killed in Kenya” while BBC wrote “Sharif killing: Prominent Pakistani journalist shot dead in Kenya”.
Sharif’s attorney, Barrister Shoaib Razzaq, filed a petition in Islamabad High Court to form a judicial commission to investigate the reasons as to why journalists like Sharif have to leave their country. Meanwhile, the whole Pakistani nation is demanding an immediate inquiry for Sharif, their beloved and respected senior journalist.
Now the government had found an investigative team to probe the murder of Sharif who had reached Kenya on 29th Oct.
“On Friday, in an explosive and unexpected press conference, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt Gen Nadeem Ahmed Anjum joined Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) DG Lt Gen Babar Iftikhar to speak about journalist Arshad Sharif’s killing and former premier Imran Khan’s confrontational narrative against the military, as well as a host of other related topics.
This is the first time in Pakistan’s history that the head of the country’s spy agency has directly addressed the media.
At the outset of the press conference, Gen Iftikhar said the purpose of today’s media talk was to shed light on the killing of journalist Arshad Sharif in Kenya and the circumstances surrounding it.”
Key points of presser are
- March 27 narrative built through a piece of paper ‘far from reality’
- Arshad Sharif was fed propaganda on cypher by Imran Khan
- Facts behind the cypher and Sharif’s death have to be determined
- ARY News played the role of a spin doctor in targeting the army; CEO Salman Iqbal should be brought back to Pakistan
- KP govt in August issued a letter stating TTP splinter group was looking to target Sharif
- No one forced Arshad Sharif to leave Dubai
- Sharif did not face any threat in Pakistan
- COAS presented ‘lucrative offer” for extension in March
Sharif’s funeral prayers were offered at Shah Faisal Mosque on 27th Oct, where a large number of journalists, politicians and civil society attended the funeral prayers in the federal capital Islamabad and Sharif laid to rest at the H-11 graveyard. Afterwards, personnel of the Pakistan Army paid tribute to the journalist and a garland from Chief of Army Staff Qamar Javed Bajwa was laid at his grave.
Pakistan remains in the list of dangerous country brutal killing of Arshad Sharif is rising many other questions and there are a lot of speculation among the journalistic community.
