The owners of Qamar House do not have an authentic record of the young and old men and women who have leaped to their death from the different floors of the huge building
(With all your concerted efforts, what you can’t escape or avert is death.)

QAMAR House, constructed more than four decades ago, was once considered the tallest building in Karachi. It stands in front of the imposing Karachi Port Trust building in the proximity of Keamari Bridge. The owners of Qamar House do not have an authentic record of the young and old men and women who have leaped to their death from the different floors of the huge building. The victims willingly embraced death by falling flat on the concrete pavement at the base of the building. After hitting the pavement with tremendous velocity, none of them moved a limb. None of them moaned. None of them uttered a word. They died instantly and silently, and passed away into the mysterious world beyond this world.

Before the construction of Qamar House, an antiquated monument that stood tallest in entire Sindh was Masoom Shah Jo Munaro, the tower of Masoom Shah, in Sukkur. Mir Masoom Bakhri was a trusted lieutenant of the Mughul Emperor Akbar. He was a scholar, and an architect of considerable merit. The tower, known after his name, Masoom Shah, was constructed by him more than four hundred years ago along with the tomb in which his mortal remains together with other members of his family are buried.

For centuries, Masoom Shah Jo Munaro lured many dejected and heart-broken lovers who plunged to their instantaneous death from the dizzy height of the tower. Irrespective of cast, creed, culture and religion, death is an irrevocable common heritage of mankind. Among the perished were both Muslims and Hindus.

Those were the good old days. Most of the persons who took their own life were forlorn lovers. Otherwise, there hardly was any plausible reason for wilful dying. Not getting married to the girl of his choice was good enough a reason for a young man to put a premature end to his life. Although still in vogue, the incidents of dying for a parted beloved by plunging to death from tall buildings have become extinct. More potent reasons and methods for intentional dying have replaced wilful dying for a beloved.

The victims choose different methods for wilful dying. They swallow pesticide, poison, and sleeping pills in bulk. Some of them prefer a violent death. The more daring among the victims put a gun to the temple, press the trigger, and blow out their own brains. A few of them lie flat on railway tracks in front of a high-speed train, and are mutilated beyond recognition. Most intriguing, suicide by hanging is committed in prisons, and Police lockups. An unanswered question keeps ringing, ‘who provides ropes to the victims for dying?’

Like leaping to death from heights, the victims these days do not prefer to lie down on rails in front of a train for instantaneous death. Less and less victims put a gun to the head for bashing out their own brain. The changing patterns in wilful dying indicate a victim’s hidden desire for survival. We are not discussing wilful acts of dying under depression. We are discussing wilful dying signifying protest. Suicide is man’s greatest outcry against an atrocious society. Nowadays, instead of dejection in love affair, social, political and economic trials and tribulations propound tangible reasons for wilful dying of men and women in our country.

One of the first persons who plunged to their death from Qamar House 40 years ago was Saleem, a student of First Year LLB in S.M. Law College, Karachi. A week before he put an end to his life, he was picked up by secret agents for interrogation. He was a voracious reader. Apart from the handful of libraries in the city, he was a frequent visitor to the USSR Information Centre and Library. He was labelled a communist, an unpardonable sin in our pious society. He was also accused of involvement in anti-state activities.

After a week or so, Saleem was set at liberty. Fellow students saw in him an entirely different person. He had turned into a lone wolf. He no more went to the libraries. When in college, he refused to enter into any kind of discussion with fellow students and teachers. He preferred solitude. No one knew what they did to him.

One day, Saleem walked up to Qamar House. Instead of an elevator, he slowly climbed the stairs to the top of the building. Sudden and grave provocation prompts a sufferer to put an immediate end to his life. But, mentally preparing for intentional dying is an extremely painful process. After his release from the dreaded interrogation cells, Saleem mentally prepared himself for wilful death.

His preference for climbing to the top slowly through stairs provided him with precious parting moments to re-examine his decision leading to his wilful death. By the time he set foot on the top of the building, he had finally and firmly made up his mind for dying. According to an eyewitness, Saleem firmly but slowly walked up to the parapet, and leaped to his death.

It was a lone man’s violent protest against the insult and the humiliation he had undergone at the hands of the State just for nothing.