ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court in Islamabad on Tuesday freed senior journalist Ayaz Amir, who the police arrested and charged with abetting the murder of his daughter-in-law killed last Friday.
Sara Inam, 37, a Canadian national, was bludgeoned to death in broad daylight allegedly by her husband and Amir’s son, Shahnawaz Amir, at a farmhouse in Chak Shahzad, a suburb of Islamabad that falls in the jurisdiction of Shahzad Town police station.
The police arrested the suspect from the crime scene and booked him the following day under Section 302 (punishment for murder) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) on the complaint of station house officer (SHO) Nawazish Ali Khan.
Inam was killed a day after she arrived from Abu Dhabi where she was working as a financial specialist. She got married to Shahnawaz three months ago in Chakwal, the hometown of Amirs. It’s widely believed the couple knew each other before marriage and the marriage was of their own choice, not arranged by their families.
The following day, police booked Amir and his former wife, Samina Shah, and arrested the veteran journalist for his alleged involvement in the incident.
Amir was presented before the court Tuesday after completion of his earlier one-day physical remand.
At the outset of the hearing, the police requested a five-day extension in his remand for further interrogation.
The counsel for the police informed the court about the progress in the investigation, saying that Amir came in contact with his son after the murder. They said Inam’s parents have also reached Pakistan.
Meanwhile, Amir’s lawyer maintained his client doesn’t have anything to do with this case and, therefore, should be discharged.
The lawyer reiterated that Amir was in his hometown of Chakwal at the time of the incident and that he informed the police about the murder once he found out himself.
The government of PML-N has a bad track record regarding freedom of expression and several journalists have been assaulted and detained by police in recent months.
