Commission seeks journalists cooperation

ISLAMABAD - Judicial commission probing Saleem Shahzads murder has expressed concern over the non-cooperation of senior journalists as 18 journalists were summoned for recording their statements but only 9 journalists have so far appeared before the commission. Senior Journalist Najam Sethi and Ali Dayan, representative of Human Rights Watch in Pakistan, have not so far appeared before the commission. Ali Dayan is a person, who had received last email of Saleem Shahzad, in which the slain journalist had expressed fear from the spy agencies. The sources told TheNation that Najam Sethi had informed the commission that he would be available for recording his statement in September. The commission, which has mandate to conclude its finding within six months, has accepted his request. President Pakistan Federal Union of Journalist and one of the members of judicial commission told media after the commission meeting that doctors of Mandi Bahaudin and Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, who conducted autopsy of Saleem Shazad, and anchorperson of private TV channel Asma Chaudhry and her producer Ismat recorded their statements before the commission. The judicial commission headed by Justice Saqib Nisar next week will visit Mandi Bahaudin from where the Saleem body was found and Sara-e-Alamgir where the car of the journalist was recovered. It is relevant to mention that Saleem was kidnapped from Islamabad when he was going to attend Asma Chaudhrys TV programme. The next meeting of commission would be held in Lahore next week. In the last meeting, the commission was informed by FIA cyber crime wing Chief Shahid Nadeem Baloch that wing is trying to access the password of Saleems cell phone and his email data. The foreign cellular company had also been formally requested in written through foreign office for getting the access to email record of Saleem Shahzad as he was using blackberry services for email exchange.

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