Nor shall the righteous have regrets: LAHORE DIARY

SAJJAD Husain stunned them with his smile.

Mr Husain, in case you cannot immediately place the name, is the Ghaziabad man being held by the police for killing his three children, their mother and a man he believed was her lover. A fourth child remains critically wounded.

SP Syed Aftab Ejaz had already informed the reporters about the ‘honour killing,’ the arrest and a confession. The SP said the man claimed to have had a nagging suspicion of his wife’s morals. Two years ago, he had divorced her. He had, however, allowed himself to be persuaded to consider reconciliation and they had again started living together. The other man involved was his cousin from an Okara village who had been unemployed until Sajjad engaged him three months ago as a helper. The shooting was premeditated and he had tried initially to lie about it. He had also tried to flee. As far as investigation was concerned, it was an open and shut case. Yes, the reporters could see him.

Sajjad reiterated his statement. What shocked reporters, however, was his radiant smile. It was so out of place they could not help asking him to explain it. He did. It came from the satisfaction of having done the right thing. He had no regrets. None really? No, he was positive. Was he not sorry about the children. No. Was it because he doubted his relationship to them? Not that, they were his children all right. He had killed them to spare them the misery of growing up as orphans in a society he knew too well. They had been killed out of kindness.

Had the reporters meant to spoil it for him, they could have told him one of the children might just survive!

IN Bheenidhalwan village of Manawan, a man and his son were pulled out of a Friday congregation and shot. Three other worshippers were injured by stray bullets.

The deceased had been shot at on their way to the mosque but were unhurt. They hurried on and might have thought themselves safe on reaching it. If so, they were proved wrong rather quickly.

Local police claimed that a compromise had only recently been arranged between the deceased and the rival party, said to be led by a Hafiz. The parties had sworn on the occasion by the Holy Quran that the enmity was over.

A number of people have been killed in the mosques or on account of their association with them. This, however, seems different. Rather personal. But don’t people tend to avoid mosques and congregations while settling personal scores? Two things stand out here. One, despite efforts by honest brokers the matter was considered irreconcilable, at least by one of the parties. Two, nothing — neither the pledge ‘extorted’ from them nor the sanctity of the mosque — was seen as more important than their resolve to settle the matter their way. What could be behind such unrelenting fury? One suspects righteousness.

SADAR Ali died of burns. He had told doctors some Shafiqabad policemen had given him a beating for demanding payment for the fruit that they took from him and pushed him into large frying pan. The family said the police had picked up one of his brothers and planned to register a false case against him. The police, however, claimed that hashish had been recovered from their house during a raid. They claimed that the burns were self-suffered and were meant to malign the police.

The district Nazim who visited the area after a protest strike by shopkeepers has ordered the SHO’s transfer and suspension from service ‘for his failure to maintain law and order.’

THE Lahore Smart Community announced last week it was sponsoring a youth delegation’s visit to Singapore to launch an initiative for Kashmir peace. It argued that since 20 students from India would also be participating in the World Youth Peace Conference being held there, it was an opportunity for the youth from both sides to exchange views. The conference, it said, would also formulate a framework for peace in Kashmir and South Asia to be presented to the United Nations and governments of India, Pakistan, the US, the Britain and Russia.

One wonders if they can also discuss Ghaziabad, Manawan and Shafiqabad — or Gujarat or Bihar.

WHATEVER its merits, the National Accountability Bureau was found out last week to be a poor host. A spokesman acknowledged that those in its custody were asked to bear their medical expenses and charged for meals ‘if they don’t like the prison food.’ He did not say how the choice was ascertained or what percentage of suspects opted for prison food. The fact that the complaint has surfaced only recently seems to suggest that most of the people it has dealt with understand its working.

While lawyers were quick to point out that it lacked legal cover, the police practice is known to be similar. The only difference, probably is the length of the period the Bureau is allowed to hold a suspect.

A REPORT last week said while separation of the investigation wing had not done much to improve the Lahore police performance in dealing with crime against property, the investigation of crime against people had been impressive. Nearly 75 per cent of the cases registered since February 15, it said, had been ‘solved,’ nearly 60 per cent had already been referred to the courts for trial. The breakdown provided in the report showed that of all the categories, the police had been most efficient in investigating the attacks itself. Thirty of the 33 cases registered during the period had been solved and 27 sent to the courts. Police encounters were a close second. Out of the 16 cases sent to the investigation wing 14 had been solved. Out of these 12 had been submitted to the courts for trial. Interesting, don’t you think?

AMER Mahmood, Lahore’s educationist district Nazim, says his city government wants the union councils to run the understaffed, cash-starved middle schools.

The school boards comprising philanthropists and old students, he said, would be authorized to recruit ‘additional’ teachers and carry out ‘special’ repairs to the school buildings from whatever the funds they could generate. The city government, which is opposed to allowing town or union councils to collect any taxes of their own, would pay the salaries of only the current employees. The proposed change would thus shift the responsibility for the schools from the district Nazim to UC Nazims without a corresponding resource transfer.

LEADING Lahore journalists founded last week a Free Media Foundation. Its stated objectives include improving professional standards and access to information besides building a fraternity of media people to promote peace and amity.

The list of founding members reads like a who’s who of editors, columnists and have-beens. The publisher of an Urdu daily was conspicuous for his conflict of interests particularly after the All Pakistan Newspapers Society filed a petition before the Supreme Court of Pakistan challenging the law providing for minimum-wage standards for newspaper employees and calling for the latest wage board award to be set aside. —- ONLOOKER