Edhis prepare to bid farewell to girl as father released from jail for murder

T arrived with tuberculosis at the home and is asthmatic.

KARACHI: It took two years for the child to learn how to laugh again. Today she is eight years old and can quietly tell you how her father murdered her mother.

“He killed her at night with a sharp knife. She was asleep.”

On Wednesday, she put on a new suit her guardian Bilquis Edhi had especially prepared for the day: her father was getting out of jail and was coming to get her.

Mohammad Khan was charged with murder under section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code and was sent to jail for ten years. However, when the court failed to find enough evidence against him, the sentence was cut short by four years and he was released. His first move as a free man was to get his daughter back from the Edhi Home, a place she has called home since the age of two. Eight-year-old T does not fear her father. She wants to live with him and visited him regularly when he was behind bars.

Her guardians, on the other hand do not want her to go. Bilquis Edhi feels particularly bitter about having to let T go with her father. “The memory of her mother’s murder was stuck in her head,” said Bilquis, who is affectionately called mummy by her staff and children at the home. “When she moved in with us, the child did not laugh for nearly two years.”

Khan went to the Edhis for his daughter on Tuesday, a day after he was released from Central Jail. He met Abdul Sattar Edhi, who agreed to hand the girl over. However, his wife Bilquis said that she would only agree to send T back to her father in front of the media. She added that she could not trust a man who had killed his wife.

While in prison, Khan was released on parole for good behaviour and used to meet his daughter on Eid and other events. He often told the inmate about how much he missed and loved his daughter. Bilquis claimed that this meant nothing. “He must have used his daughter to soften the law,” she said while asking the nurses to pack T’s bags. “Make sure you don’t pack her winter clothes. Just the voile suits so she doesn’t feel hot. God knows where he will take her and how he will take care of her.” She added that they could not even visit her as they had no legal rights to do so as the court would always rule in favour of blood relatives.

In the six years T spent at the Edhi Home, none of her relatives came to visit her. She could not remember grandparents, aunts, uncles or cousins.

“She was diagnosed with Tuberculosis when she moved in with us and has asthma,” said Zubeida, a nurse. “She needs steam every time she eats something cold or is allergic.”

Bilquis wanted to know how Khan planned to provide for T’s medical needs. “Does the court not see that this child will be vulnerable with him?” she said. “He has no cell phone number and no address. How will we know if the girl is safe? He is not answerable to the Edhi Foundation or anyone else.”

At the end of the day, T never got to go home with her father because he never came for her. This led the Edhis to announce that they would only hand the child over through the court and not deal with the man directly.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 24^th, 2012.