Officer’s death from dengue leaves family desolate

Mother says her son was the breadwinner and no official has come to condole.

LAHORE:

“My son died while on duty and now there isn’t anyone to serve me and my two disabled daughters”, laments 65-year old Naseem Akhtar whose 26-year-old son Abdul Qadeer, a traffic police warden, died of dengue five days ago.

Qadeer was deputed at Thokar Niaz Beg and contracted dengue while performing his duties. He fell sick last Tuesday but couldn’t go home till late at night as there was nobody to replace him.

By the time Qadeer reached home he had high fever and acute pain. “My son died on duty. No police or government official has contacted us even to condole,” Akhtar said.

Qadeer was the youngest of six siblings and the major contributor to the household. One of his elder brothers is mentally challenged. Another is married and lives separately. Two of his sisters are disabled and the third one is married.

“We pay Rs4,500 per month as rent . I am ill and one of my daughters is permanently on medication,” Akhtar said. “The government shouldn’t forget its workers so easily,” she added.

Qadeer’s brother-in-law Abdul Wahab said, “Qadeer was the most educated person in his family. In 2009, he passed his masters in political sciences. Six years ago, when he joined the police as a traffic warden he was a graduate. Qadeer had once asked for an NOC from his department to sit in a test to be a lecturer but he wasn’t given one. The officers said if all the qualified people go to Education Department what would police do.”  Wahab said that some policement friends had come to Qadeer’s funeral in their personal capacity but no one from the government or the Police Department had come. “The family was dependent on him. They are not only sad about his loss but also don’t know how to make ends meet,” he said.

Napoleon Qayyum, a human rights activist, said the government shouldn’t forget the workers that died performing their duties. “Policemen remain on streets for people. Doctors and nurses remain in hospitals to take care of dengue patients. If something happens to them, the government shouldn’t ignore them. If they continue to do so, it will demoralise other workers,” he said.

Dengue death toll

Dengue continues to take lives as six more people died of the virus in Lahore on Tuesday. The death toll has now reached 111 in Punjab, out of which 102 have been from Lahore. So far 11,054 dengue patients have been reported in Punjab and 9,787 of those are from Lahore.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 28^th, 2011.