KARACHI: “My father was depressed and it was not due to his not getting his pension,” screamed Saeeda, daughter of the sexagenarian Mohammad Iqbal Qasim Ali, who is said to have committed suicide by jumping from the sixth floor of Civic Centre here on Monday.

“He kept asking for what was his right and made several rounds to the KMC office as well as the bank every month but only to return empty-handed. He told us that the people there laughed in his face and told him that he was a has-been past his prime who should just accept defeat now as he had no sources to help him get his money,” she said as she wept.

“I hold the government entirely responsible for my father’s death. He didn’t jump from the rooftop of his house, he jumped from a government building, which is another thing that makes us curse this government. And I ask why is there no CCTV camera footage of his entering the building or of what happened afterwards?” she said.

Saeeda’s younger brother, Naveed, too, requested the media to highlight the real circumstances leading to his father’s death.

Meanwhile, Mohammad Ramazan, Iqbal’s nephew, said: “When leaving home on Monday morning my uncle said to my aunt Amina that if things didn’t go his way today, he might not return home.”

The nephew said that Iqbal, who had retired as a storekeeper from the Karachi Municipal Corporation (KMC) in 1999, had been running from pillar to post for his pension. “Ever since the current government came into power, my uncle had been asking for his right like a beggar begging for alms. He had not been paid his pension for 13 months now and making ends meet at home had become impossible with his son being jobless as well,” he said.

“Both his son Naveed and daughter Saeeda are well-educated. His son has done his BCom and daughter has studied till ICom. He was also worried about his unmarried daughter’s future,” said the nephew.

Asked why Iqbal’s wife didn’t stop him and talk sense into him when he had spoken of not returning home if he didn’t have his way, the nephew said she said now that she didn’t even imagine that this was what he had meant.

Sources say that Iqbal only had his national identity card and Rs32 in his pocket when he jumped. His CNIC had his old Mansehra Colony address on it so many people headed to Quaidabad to be with his family in their hour of grief. But there it was learnt that he had moved to Shah Latif Town some years ago.

A former neighbour there said that he saw what happened on television found it difficult to believe that someone like Iqbal would kill himself. “I remember Iqbal as a very sane, balanced and calm person. I can’t imagine him becoming so dejected that he would take his own life. But it has been years since I last met him. God knows what drove him to take such an extreme step,” he said.

A KMC spokesman while extending his sense of grief with the family of the deceased told Dawn that Iqbal was getting his pension regularly. He said he had also collected his pension up to October 2016. “The KMC has bank statement to prove this,” the spokesman said, adding that he had also been paid other benefits and dues such as gratuity, leave encashment, etc.

He also said that Iqbal was trying to get his son recruited in the KMC for a while now. “He wanted to get him in on the son’s quota, which wasn’t possible as hiring has not been happening in not just the KMC but also in other departments such as the KDA, KWSB, etc for many years now. The last hiring that was done by KMC was of 2,000 employees in our parks department back in 2009 and there, too, relatives of current or past employees were not hired,” he said.

Bilal Manzar, general secretary of the KMC Officers Welfare Association, said that what happened was most tragic but the KMC had got nothing to do with it as is being said. “Despite experiencing shortage of funds, the KMC pays Rs74 million to its pensioners every month. “We receive the funds from the Sindh government and we keep this money in a separate account reserved for pensions only,” he said.

Deputy mayor of Karachi Dr Arshad Vohra said that he would hold a thorough investigation into the matter to know the reason behind the incident. He also said in case there had been any carelessness on the part of the department, they would take responsibility for it and accept whatever punishment accorded by the law.

Initial findings by the police point towards an apparent suicide. A police source also said that the deceased was depressed about his son not being able to get a job in the KMC through the son’s quota. He said the family had agreed to record their statements with the police after Iqbal’s burial following which they could move forward their investigation.

Published in Dawn October 25th, 2016

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