After dealing in drugs, Sahar is now studying for her grade 10 board examinations.
HARIPUR:
In the drug trade, it’s all about not getting caught.
Unfortunately for Sahar*, she did. While she was no regular Griselda Blanco, better known as the Black Widow, one of the few women to ever make it to the notorious top echelons of drug dealing society, Sahar was doing well in the business with frequent trips to Punjab and other parts of the country.
The last time she was in Lahore, her luck ran out. The police caught her at Attock check post with a few kilogrammes of charas.
The 39-year-old is from a village in Charsadda. Her husband was a security guard and the money he made was never enough to run the house. Faced with poverty and four young children, Sahar saw an opportunity to make a bit on the side when an acquaintance suggested peddling drugs.
“It was not easy for me,” she said. “I was scared of the consequences and at first I said no, but then the family kept needing more and more.”
The first drop
“My acquaintance took me to meet a man who briefed me about the process,” she said. “He gave me tips on how to handle the narcotics and law enforcement agencies.” She felt her destiny had changed.
Her last drop in Lahore, however, changed everything. The police registered an FIR against her under Section 9 of the Control of Narcotic Substance Act.
She claims while she was in their custody, she was beaten with sticks, verbally abused and left hungry. After two days she was presented before the judicial magistrate who sent her to jail on judicial remand. About a year ago she was found guilty and sent to serve a 25-year life sentence.
The only member of her family who came to see her during her detention at Attock Jail – she was moved to Haripur Jail in 2012 – was her brother. “He did come to console me,” she said. “He also came to tell me that I had ruined my family’s honour.”
A bad trip
The whole ordeal had been too much for her. She suffered high fever, body aches, a kidney infection and a sleeping disorder. Her doctor, Sahira Khan, who works as a psychologist with Human Development Organization (HDO), said Sahar had developed suicidal tendencies and had started to hallucinate.
The HDO has been working on rehabilitating victims of violence for the last decade in the Hazara division. Sahar registered with HDO when she moved to Haripur Jail in 2012. They were helping her deal with the sleeping disorder, depression and other ailments. Her psychologist shared that Sahar started showing signs of improvement gradually after four sessions.
A new direction home
Although Sahar will be behind bars till 2025, she has a plan.
As a part of her rehabilitation programme, she enrolled with HDO’s non-formal basic education school for prisoners. She has already learnt how to work a computer and took her ninth grade board exams last year. She passed with a first division. In a few days she will be taking her grade 10 examinations, with hopes that each test takes her down a new journey. *Names have changed to protect identities
Published in The Express Tribune, March 9th, 2014.
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Every criminal has a sorry story behind. She was selling drugs to children to other people and trying to feed her own, how Ironic!