ISLAMABAD: Minister for Interior Rana Sanaullah Khan has requested the Punjab government to hold an inquiry into the tragic death of Sadaf Naeem, a television journalist with Channel 5 in Lahore who was crushed to death while covering the protest march led by former prime minister Imran Khan.
Naeem, 36, died on Sunday after she slipped from the container truck that Khan was traveling in, said Salman Zafar, assistant superintendent in Kamoke, one of the towns on the march’s path.
It has been the practice of Khan’s convoy team to invite a few journalists at a time onto the top of the truck to speak to Khan.
According to INP, “quoting” Naeem’s colleagues, the minister claimed the reporter had been pushed from Khan’s container. He demanded the accused be arrested and an investigation launched immediately.
He said the issue had become suspicious after the account of her colleagues. In a video posted on the Twitter handle of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Afzal Siyal, purportedly a colleague of Naeem, gave a similar, although unverified, account of her death.
Is this your ‘bloody revolution’ @ImranKhanPTI ? How dare you even use this word! Not even a day has passed since the Shahadat of Sadaf Naeem because of your lust for power. pic.twitter.com/Zs3YSrtsY0
— PML(N) (@pmln_org) October 31, 2022
Khan said if the Punjab government did not act on his advice, then the federal government would be “compelled to fulfil its responsibility” of providing justice to the victim’s family, INP reported.
Naeem was the breadwinner for her family and had worked as a journalist for 12 years. Officials say they will bear the living costs and educational expenses of her two children, aged 17 and 21.
— With AP
