Lahore shooting: Families ‘turn down’ settlement offers

Families of all three men, killed on January 27, say they turned down the latest offers for settlement.

LAHORE:

Families of the three men, killed on January 27, said they had turned down the latest offers for settlement. They appeared, however, on Sunday to be leaving the door open in the Raymond Davis affair.

Zahra Faizan, the widow of Faizan Haider, told The Express Tribune that she had been contacted by a man who introduced himself as an interpreter for the US consulate. She said the man had urged her to consider a diyat settlement permitted in Islam. She said she had turned down the offer. She said she would wait for the court verdict in the case.

She said her mother-in-law had visited her after finding out that the US consulate had tried to contact her.

This, she said, was the first visit from her in-laws since she moved out following Faizan’s death.

She said the police had kept her national identity card, which they had found in Faizan’s pocket. Only recently, she said, they had returned a couple of colour photocopies when MPA Pir Ashraf Rasool intervened on her behalf.

She said PML-Q’s Dr Khalid Ranjha had assured her he would be available for assistance with legal matters.

Dr Khalid Ranjha told The Tribune that though Zahra was not the complainant in the case against Davis, she was a legal heir and could not be deprived of diyat if a settlement was reached.  He said he had decided to help Zahra without charging any fee.

Imran Haider, Faizan’s brother, said some US consulate officials had wanted to meet him but he had refused to see them. He said he had told them that he was not interested in withdrawing the case.

Imran Haider had earlier opened a bank account and made public appeals for donations to help pursue the case against Davis. He had reportedly not taken Zahra into confidence in this regard and had told her to shun media.

Waseem Shamshad, Faheem’s brother, refused to discuss the matter, saying that he would make a decision once a serious offer was made.

Meanwhile, chehlum prayers were held for Faizan Haider, Muhammad Faheem and Ibaudr Rehman at their residences on Sunday. A large number of people attended the chehlums, but no politician or government official was present.

Earlier, two US lawyers had arrived in at Lahore on March 5 (Saturday) to assist with Davis’s case. They were reported to have contacted the families through their interpreters to persuade them to agree to a settlement.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 7^th, 2011.