Sheharyar Latif — a symbol of innocence

Letter April 05, 2013
Hopefully, justice will be served and just like any other case similar to this one, time will heal this wound.

PESHAWAR: Strange are the ways of God. God created man and man discovered the killing power of rock and bone. From greed, lust and betrayal to simple, psychotic rage, blood has been spilled since the dawn of human kind in the name of everything. Not bewaring the Ides of March, such is the story of Sheharyar Latif, an innocent young BBA student, whose body was found dumped in a canal near my house on March 20.

Sheharyar belonged to the Peshawar Street Racing and modified cars club and owned a blue Mark X car that became the reason for his death. Curious to know more about the case, I found on the internet that it was, allegedly, none other than one of his very own friends who shot him. Later, I read a column in a local Urdu newspaper that gave a detailed account of the suspect’s statements to the police from which it sounded as if he had become jealous of Sheharyar’s wealth. The suspect’s own family had lost substantial money in business and was forced to move into a rental home. He wanted Sheharyar to sell his car and use the money to help his family financially. Pondering unhappily, I thought to myself: what has this world come to when we can’t even trust our friends, who might kill us for material gains?


Hopefully, justice will be served and just like any other case similar to this one, time will heal this wound. Soon, we will move on and everything will be forgotten as if nothing ever really happened. This is a harsh reality of life in Pakistan where justice is difficult to come by.


Sheharyar was not my relative, my friend or even a friend’s friend. We had never met before. But the fact that a fellow citizen — or just a random person that could have easily been me — was subjected to such an atrocious crime horrifies me to death. May all the Sheharyars and Shahzebs of Pakistan earn the justice they deserve.


Hamza Asad


Published in The Express Tribune, April 6th, 2013.