The last time Javeria Siddique spoke with her husband, the renowned Pakistani news anchor Arshad Sharif, he was “happy and excited,” she said.
Sharif was in Kenya after leaving his home country because of threats and legal issues. On that video call on October 21, 2022, he talked to all the family members, Siddique said, even the pets.
“His dogs were so excited to see him on video call as they thought he had returned home,” Siddique told VOA.
But the journalist never returned home. Two days after that call, Sharif was shot dead at a roadblock in Kenya.
His death shocked Pakistan and led to competing theories about what happened. Was it, as Kenyan authorities claim, a case of mistaken identity, or had powerful interests that Sharif took on in his journalism found a way to silence him?
For Siddique, she is balancing grief over her husband of 12 years with fighting for answers about what led to his death, and who may be responsible.
But it is a lonely fight.
“It is so quiet in my house right now that you can hear the ticking of the wall clock. It seems like everything is getting out of hand,” Siddique told VOA during a video call.
Siddique, one of Sharif’s two widows, wants the government to re-open the case into her husband’s killing. “A special judicial commission should be formed,” she said, “so that an investigation can be conducted into the murder of Arshad Sharif and other journalists who have been killed in Pakistan this year.”
Siddique’s push for justice is a challenge shared by other families of journalists killed in apparent retaliation for their work.
Pakistan has legislation to ensure journalist safety at provincial and federal levels, said Iqbal Khattak, Pakistan representative for Reporters Without Borders, known as RSF.
But, “both the laws appear to be failing in protecting journalists and combating impunity, leaving journalists vulnerable, without any use of the legal framework protections,” said Khattak.
Part of the reason, he added, is because the safety commissions and systems required have not been fully established.
“Without robust and functioning safety mechanisms, these laws will remain ineffective, and the lives of media professionals will continue to be at greater risks.”
Pakistan has proved to be one of the deadliest countries for journalists this year, with at least six killings, according to media watchdogs.
But the Pakistani media watchdog Freedom Network, of which Khattak is executive director, has documented attempted killings this year as well.
In the group’s first report focused on journalist safety, it documented at least 57 violations, including threats, assaults, and legal harassment between November 2023 and August 2024.
Sharif had experienced threats and legal harassment before he finally left Pakistan in August 2022.
The one-time anchor of Pakistan’s ARY News channel had become a vocal critic of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment after former Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed from office in April 2022.
“Arshad acted on his own will,” said Siddique. “And when you do that, the system starts to feel threatened by such people.”
Siddique said that suspicious people would stand outside their home, and on one occasion someone tried to enter their property. The journalist also received anonymous threatening calls.
But, she said, Sharif refused to back down. “I saw him becoming even more fearless. I saw him crossing the so-called ‘red lines.’ He started questioning various things that we normally cannot question in Pakistan.”
Sharif also came under legal threats, with sedition charges leveled against him when he finally left, traveling first to Dubai and then to Kenya.
Two months later, he was killed. Two years later, Sharif’s case remains unresolved.
Cross-border probe
The government of Pakistan sent an investigation team to Kenya and requested collaboration with Kenyan authorities, saying “an assassination cannot be ruled out.”
In December 2022, the chief justice of Pakistan’s supreme court ordered a five-member bench to look into Arshad’s death. The following year, that chief justice retired; since his departure, there has been no movement in the case.
Siddique says the Pakistan court proceedings have been marred with delays and hurdles.
There have been delays in Kenya, too. After a court there ruled that the journalist’s death was unlawful and arbitrary, law enforcement was ordered to pay compensation. But an appeal led to a stay on the case until January, one of the Kenyan lawyers who represents Siddique told VOA.
RSF’s Iqbal Khattak believes Pakistan should be taking the lead.
“Sharif’s murder story begins from Pakistan,” Khattak said. “If we do not find who killed him and why was he killed, then the conspiracy theories surrounding his death will stay the course and people will believe them.”
For Siddique, the two years since her husband’s death have been hard. She faced threats and harassment that she believes are intended to deter her from demanding a transparent investigation.
“In last two years, I had to relocate twice,” she said. “I have seen my ID card, home address, all plastered on the internet.”
She is also trying to keep the legal cases moving forward.
Siddique has demanded that the Pakistani state form a special judicial commission to investigate her husband’s death as well as the killings of other journalists in Pakistan this year.
“Now, I speak up for everyone. Because they all have the option to be reunited with their loved ones. I don’t have that option,” said Siddique.
