All the king’s men and all the king’s horses have huffed and puffed beyond their capacities but the Aristotlean tragedy of prominent journalist Arshad Sharif continues to hang in the air. On Tuesday, Chief Justice Umar Atta Bandial reminded the state how the Supreme Court did not believe in “wasting time in the investigation” and 40 days was more than enough to produce the report of the fact-finding mission. Glaring loopholes in the “unsatisfactory” medical report add further credence to the apathy as the officials only seem interested in dragging the can as far as they can down the dusty road. More atrociously, the tightening of the screws led to an instantaneous registration of an FIR by the Islamabad Police but alas! here too, the rush to action conveniently sidelined the very much alive family members of the unfortunate victim. There are no easy answers to what forced a police officer to lodge a complaint on his behalf when both widow and mother were constantly deploring the authorities to investigate the realities behind this cold-blooded murder. Sadly, this has achieved nothing other than rubbing salt in the wounds of the bereaved, who are already beginning to lose faith in the capability of their country in finding out what had happened to their dear one. Where has the anxiety about finding out what had actually happened to a Pakistani citizen in a foreign land, especially considering the circumstances of his departure disappeared because none of the powerful cabinet members and their resolute is in sight? The hanging loose ends have been unsettling from the start and Islamabad has to date done incredibly little to solve the mystery. Arshad Sharif was no sitting duck when alive and should not be treated as another case of an “unexplainable” turn of events or a strike by “known unknowns.” An extraordinarily splendid fighter with only one weapon in his arsenal–no-nonsense, point-blank line of questioning–cannot be reduced to an entry in some falling-to-pieces file in the record room. From failures in the investigation to gross scandalisation to media trials, those behind the wheel have to come clean about all that has gone wrong since Mr Sharif was fatally wounded in Kenya on October 23. *