Justice for Jawaid Bhutto
Even after three years, the family of the Pakistani philosopher Jawaid Bhutto, who was brutally killed in Washington DC in 2019, still awaits justice. The DC administration has blatantly failed to give justice to widow of the assassinated philosopher; she has been running pillar to post for an exemplary punishment to her husband’s killer, the 48-year-old Hilman Jordan, who had killed his own cousin in 1998, and was released from the psychiatric wards of city's St Elizabeths Hospital after spending 17 years there.
Bhutto was 63 years old and had worked as a professor of philosophy at the University of Sindh. Bhutto, a teacher, philosopher and an intellectual, belonged to the Shikarpur town of Sindh. Since childhood, unlike other children, he had no dreams to become a doctor or an engineer. After his intermediate (HSC), on the insistence of his father, he joined the Bolan Medical College, Balochistan. He left the medical field in the middle of his course and pursued philosophy. He went to Bulgaria, secured a degree in philosophy, and later started teaching at the University of Sindh, Jamshoro, where he rose to the position of the chairperson of the department.
Bhutto came in the limelight when he began the struggle to get justice for his sister Fouzia Bhutto, a student of a medical college in Nawabshah. She was allegedly killed by the former PPP MPA Rahim Bux Jamali, who was infamous for his terror tactics at that time. Bhutto was buried adjacent to the grave of his sister in his hometown.
Before they tied the knot and became life partners, Jawaid Bhutto and Nafisa Hoodhboy met in 1990 when the latter had passion for field reporting and visited Jamshoro and other cities to dig up the story of Fauzia's murder. Nafisa, who was born and raised in Karachi and earned a masters degree in US history at the Northeastern University, USA, worked with The Guardian, a London-based newspaper, and then joined Dawn, Pakistan's largest English daily, in the 1980s. "I was drawn towards Jawaid because of the truthfulness of his heart," Hoodbhoy said. After their marriage, the couple left for the USA in the early 1990s; Hoodhboy started working with the Voice of America (VOA), and Jawaid pursued different jobs.
"Jawaid was the true lover of Sindh and its sufi culture, that's why his every conversation revolved around that," Nafisa said, adding that during his stay in the USA, he used to interact with people living in Sindh on a wide range of issues, including philosophy, Sufism, Shah Abdul Latif, capitalism, socialism, and origin of religions.
Bhutto and Hoodhboy, a senior journalist, had recently moved to the US when they met Hilman, who was their neighbour in City View Condos, Southeast Washington. Hilman, who was allegedly a drug addict, frequently smoked marijuana, which often led to its smell going into Bhutto’s condo, who then lodged a complaint with their mutual landlord. "Jawaid emailed Joe Hoston, Hilman's landlord, that the foul smell of the drugs penetrated our home as he smoked the drug the entire day. Instead of taking action and asking him to give up the habit, the landlord, who was a friend of Hilman, informed him and showed him the email, which led to the horrific incident," Nafisa said.
In Washington DC, Bhutto was affiliated with a nonprofit organisation that helped people with disabilities, while his wife Hoodbhoy was working with VOA's Extremism Watch Desk. "His birthday was around the corner, so I gave him a list of groceries. I was at work. He bought the groceries and reached home. It was a breezy March morning. As he came out of his car in our parking area and was opening the trunk, the killer, who was apparently waiting for him, shot him at point-blank range, and casually went back to his apartment waving the pistol ," Hoodbhoy said, adding that police reached on the spot and arrested Hilman whose shoes were stained with blood. The police, during the search, recovered some marijuana and a 9mm pistol from his apartment.
When Hilman killed his cousin in 1998, his lawyer argued to the prosecutors that at the time of killing, his client was not legally culpable because of the severe effects of schizophrenia and paranoia he was suffering from. It meant the killer was not mentally fit, so he should be declared not guilty by reason of insanity like others who get the benefit of such circumstances in American courts. His attorney further argued that his client would receive the treatment at St. Elizabeths, a psychiatric hospital, until he fully recovered.
After the legal procedure and his mental evaluation, Hilman Jordan was declared not guilty in 1999 by the court, even though he had admitted to killing his cousin. Later, Hilman was sent to a psychiatric hospital where he was phase-wise released on different occasions to attend Christmas, a New Year celebration and Martin Luther King Jr Day with his parents before his complete release took place in 2015. One of the attorneys, prosecutor Colleen M Kennedy, who was pursuing the case, once told the court that Hilman had been violating the release terms by smoking marijuana and developing sexual relations with a female staff member at the facility he was committed to. "After one particular visit to family, he returned to St Elizabeths hospital with a pistol. He might have a plan to shoot someone or mount pressure for additional benefits in the hospital," Kennedy said. Despite that, he was released from the hospital, and allowed to live in the community as an outpatient with court orders to the Department of Behavioral Health to monitor him properly and conduct his psychiatric and drug tests.
According to Hoodbhoy, neither they nor other neighbours were informed about Hilman’s psychological condition, and he was not regularly monitored by the Department of Behavioral Health of Washington DC. They were supposed to conduct his physiatrist test for drugs, but all in vain. "He was living and enjoying life on taxpayers money when he murdered my spouse. Since day one, we have demanded a fair trial of the case, but the prosecution department and other relevant officials in DC are insisting on settling the case through plea bargaining. It means the criminal pleads guilty to a lesser charge. If it happens, the assassin will hardly be languishing for seven years in jail," she said, adding it was a premeditated murdered, but the DC administration and its officials are calling it insanity.
While the prosecution was still mulling over how to proceed with the case further, COVID-19 appeared on the scene and delayed things. Hilman also tested positive and was sent to the same psychiatric hospital where he had previously spent 17 years. Further proceedings are still underway to determine his psychiatric condition and the intention behind the murder.
Meanwhile, Hoodbhoy, who previously worked as a reporter with different news organisations, has proved to be a true warrior when it comes to defending her husband's case. That can be gauged from the fact that she has sued the DC administration for failing to watch the landlord of the apartment where Hilman lived, and the association of the City Views Condos for creating an environment conducive for the murder.
"My plea is that DC is behind the murder. It should accept the responsibility because apparently its administration was giving him the rent and other expenses. Why did it fail to monitor him?” Hoodbhoy said, adding that at the time of the release, the court had given clear instructions to the administration to keep a vigil on him by conducting psychiatric and drug tests, but a turned blind eye.
Secondly, the landlord gave him the apartment knowing that he was a criminal, a murderer and a drug addict. "When Jawaid sent an email to him lodging the complaint about his drug habits, the landlord showed the email to him rather than instructing him to avoid using marijuana," she lamented. "I tirelessly follow each case with a high hope to win it because we are pleading on solid grounds.”
When the media highlighted the issue criticising the negligence of the DC administration in this entire saga, a council committee on health at Pennsylvania Avenue held a public oversight hearing in November 2019 with the presence of Department of Behavioral Health Director Barbara Barzon and former mayor of District Columbia Vince Gray. Accepting their oversight, Bazron said, "The department of health behavior failed to monitor Hilman Jordan, who killed Bhutto.” She also said that Hilman was a patient who was convicted of murder in 1998 and was discharged from St Elizabeths Hospital before killing another man [Bhutto]. "Our forensic outpatient department and outpatient forensic review board failed to follow the protocol. These sub-agencies are responsible for supervising patients released by DC," she said, and tendered an apology on the negligence on the part of her department.
During the hearing of the committee, some officials revealed that in the initial days some officials of the Forensic Outpatient Department had conducted a urine test of Hilman, which was found positive for weed. They did not inform the court, otherwise, he would have been sent to a hospital.
Gray, who is now a Ward-7 Council member, said, "Mr. Bhutto would still be alive if the court orders had been complied in letter and spirit." He then expressed his grief and deep concern in front of Bhutto's widow. "It seems to me there’s an awful lot of explaining for the District of Columbia to do at this stage,” he opined.
The same remarks came from the landlord who during the hearing in a court of law said, "It was the responsibility of DC, not ours, to return Hilman back to the hospital for violating his releasing terms.”
According to Hoodbhoy, she has been fighting the case to change the prevailing public duty doctrine under the line of Megan's Law that was created in response to the murder of Megan Kanka who, aged seven, was raped and murdered in New Jersey. "Before this law, the registration of sex offenders was not common. Now, it is required to publicise the information of such offenders," she said, adding that there must be a change in public duty doctrine compelling every department to display the list of all criminals to avoid such incidents in future. "If not, then criminals like Hilman will get off scot free citing the reason of insanity," she remarked.
Around 3,676 people around the world have signed the online petition to DC Mayor Muriel Bowser that says, "DC must accept responsibility for Jawaid Bhutto's death."
Looking at the delaying tactics in providing justice, a few days ago, more than 100 people, including friends of Jawaid Bhutto belonging to Sindh, staged a demonstration against the DC administration in front of the Freedom Plaza. The area echoed with the slogans, such as “Watch out DC, your neighbour could be a killer.” They demanded justice for Jawaid Bhutto and peacefully dispersed.
Nafisa Hoodbhoy, author of Aboard the Democracy Train, a book about politics and journalism in Pakistan, said that before the incident, the couple were planning to return to Pakistan to settle there permanently in order to contribute to their own country, but Jawaid Bhutto’s death changed that. "We were two bodies but one spirit. I still can't believe that he is no more.”