The “free media” continues to present a lopsided view of incidents; the police continue to ignore the facts; and the wives of feudal lords – like the niece of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, Hina Gilani – continue to forcefully employ child laborers and then even kill them for “daring” to try to drink juice from their pitcher.
Here’s the whole story:
Javed aged 9 and Jameel, aged 13, were forcefully taken from their parents in Kotla Rahm Ali Shah. Faheem Abbas Shah, the feudal overlord in the area, took the kids to his home in Multan, to act as servants. The parents wanted their kids to study but Faheem thought domestic work was far more lucrative a career.
Following their ‘hiring’, the kids were not allowed to meet their parents for many subsequent months.
On Thursday afternoon, June 6, Jameel poured himself a glass of juice from the fridge and broke the glass pitcher in the process. Faheem’s wife, Hina Gilani, was so enraged that she beat him badly and then slammed the broken glass jug against his head.
Jameel started crying and bleeding but retreated to the rooftop, which was his only refuge. A rooftop with no place to shelter himself.
June 6th was the hottest day of the year for Multan with temperatures reaching 116.6 F (47 C).
In the blistering heat of Multan, he continued to hemorrhage while Hina Gilani and her family did not provide any medical assistance. When the 9-year old brother, Javed saw the critical condition of his brother, he rushed downstairs, crying and pleading to seek help for Jameel.
Naturally irked by the ‘irritating’ kid, Hina beat him as well. The kid ran back and sat by his dying brother on the hot, cement rooftop.
By next morning, Jameel was dead. Hina called up her husband, Faheem, telling him of the inconvenience. Another elder brother of the two kids, Saeed, was also a personal assistant of Faheem.
He was told that his brother had incurred food poisoning and they needed to go see him. On the way, Faheem told Saeed that Jameel had died. Once the duo reached Multan, Jameel’s body was lugged into Faheem’s car and taken back to the village. Meanwhile, the 9-year-old Javed was so traumatized and dehydrated that he fainted and was taken to the local hospital and admitted. He stayed in a very critical condition for a long time before reviving consciousness.
Back at the village, Faheem barred the local imam (the person who leads prayers in the local mosque and is usually responsible for giving a body its last purification bath before burial) from viewing or washing Jameel’s body.
He instructed another person, Maulvi Shafi, to wash the body instead. However, when Shafi uncovered the boy, he was shocked to see the bruises on the body and the sharp shards of glass in the boy’s skull. He immediately asked for an autopsy but was told to shut up. Due to the profuse bleeding from the child’s head, it had to be dressed with wads of gauze just before the burial.
When probed by Shafi and others, Faheem claimed that the wound was due to a head sore and that, while his body was being transported, the kids’ head hit the window of the car, causing the bleeding. According to him, Jameel had already died of typhoid back at Multan.
The devastated father of the two dead kids, Hameed, has filed an FIR against Hina Gilani and Faheem, under article 302 and 356. However, the DCO of Multan, Gulzar Shah as well as the Commissioner of the city are distantly related to the perpetuators. This is precisely why Hameed is currently under an immense pressure by the authorities and attempts are being made to persuade him to back off.
The case will be heard in the Multan court tomorrow (3rd July, 2013). However, it remains to be seen if justice will prevail.