I have no hope of getting justice in Pakistan, says Arshad Sharif's mother

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 22 December 2022

Rifat Ara Alvi, mother of journalist Arshad Sharif, finds it hard to accept her son's death and criticizes the lack of justice in Pakistan. She reveals troubling details about the threats faced by her son before his murder.

Summary

ISLAMABAD - The mother of slain journalist Arshad Sharif says she is still coming to terms with the fact that her son is no longer in this world.

"When he would go to Swat, to Waziristan, and would come back. I still tell myself that he has gone somewhere and will return soon," Rifat Ara Alvi, with misty eyes, told BBC Urdu.

Now 70, Sharif's mother is bitter. "What else I have got now? I have no hope of getting justice in this country."

The BBC Urdu article is on Sharif's murder in Kenya on October 23. The BBC correspondent, apart from meeting the late journalist's family, also interviewed officials and other related characters in Kenya.

Samia Arshad, Sharif's first wife, told BBC Urdu that he had been getting threats for a long time. "The frequency of threatening calls increased so much that he switched off his mobile phone for some time."

Samia added though Arshad was getting threats, she never thought the matter would come to this pass. "A number of people asked him to stop doing the program (on ARY). He was threatened with the closure of the talk show."

Sharif's mother said Arshad informed everybody through letters about dangers to his life. "But nobody listened. Nobody provided him security." She asked who were the people on whose directions more than a dozen FIRs were registered against Arshad Sharif. "These were the same people who wanted to finish him off."

The wife said Sharif was under a lot of pressure when leaving Dubai. "He told me that he had been asked to leave Dubai in 48 hours. He was told to go anywhere but leave Dubai. Today when I reflect, I realize under how much pressure he was."