Justice denied: Shot and left for dead, taxi driver survives, but with new agonies

Paralysed man narrates the worst day of his life; financial woes force him to withdraw son from school.

RAWALPINDI:

Life was normal for Malik Waseem Akram. He used to drive a taxi and earn enough money to support his family. He had a dream to provide education for his two sons and make them respectable citizens. The only affliction he was passing through was his elder son’s disability. The doctors have assured him that his son will lead a normal life if provided proper treatment. Then his dreams were shattered on a fateful day when robbers shot and injured him.

“Everything in my life turned upside down. I fell victim to robbers who not only deprived me of my cash, some of which I had borrowed from my uncle, but also left me paralysed,” Akram, a resident of Gulistan Colony, said.

Almost two years ago, Akram was on his way home after borrowing Rs30,000 from his uncle for the treatment of his elder son, Asadullah, when two persons signalled him to stop near the Soan bus stop.

“They said they were going to Gujar Khan and offered me double fare, claiming it was an emergency. I told them to hop in,” he said.

On the way, they asked him to pull over near a deserted area. “As soon as I stopped the cab, I felt the bullets tear through my neck and chest”, he said, showing the scars left behind.



“I don’t know what happened after the gunshots. When I opened my eyes, I found myself on a hospital bed. I tried to sit up, but couldn’t. Then I was told I had been completely paralysed by the bullets,” he said.

“Then a life full of miseries started. Two bullets hardly worth Rs50 left me like this,” he said.

When the hard times came, no friends, or even his brothers tried to help him.

They consider me and my children a burden, he said. But he does not harbour any ill-will towards them. “Maybe they have their own problems to deal with. I have no complaints about any of them,” he said.

However, he was dejected by the court’s decision in his case, as the robbers, now in jail, were not ordered to pay compensation.

“They were arrested and awarded eight years imprisonment, but I have not even been given back the looted money, let alone compensation,” he said.

Akram wished to see his children get education and make them responsible citizens.

“It was my great desire to equip my children with modern education and make them responsible citizens,” he said, while moving on to lament that due to extreme poverty, six-year-old Saifullah is now out of school as Akram can no longer afford to pay for two meals a day for his children, let alone pay for school.

His wife Shazia has done what she can to make ends meet, and works full time to keep her household afloat. “Life has its ups and downs. These miseries have been written in our fate, but we should never give up hope,” Shazia told The Express Tribune.

With the proper funding, her husband, and possibly even her son, would be able to regain enough mobility to work, but with money in short supply, she can only hope for philanthropy or prayer to cure them

“Every day, my only prayer is that my son and my husband wake up one day without their disabilities,” she said, holding back the tears in her eyes.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 19^th, 2013.