Seven of a family in suicide bid at CM’s Secretariat
Man douses children with kerosene while Shahbaz, Malik discuss law and order.
LAHORE:
A family from Bahawalpur attempted suicide in front of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on Friday while a meeting to review the law and order situation was going on inside the secretariat.
Rajab Hussain, who has been living on a footpath opposite the Lahore Press Club for about 15 months, spilled some kerosene oil over his clothes, his wife and five children but was stopped by the security guards from lighting the fire. The family then barged heads against the iron gate.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Rehman Malik were meanwhile discussing the law and order situation.
“If we don’t find justice, we will kill ourselves,” Hussain’s wife had told The Express Tribune last week. She was holding a two year-old child in her arms. “It is better to die by our own hands than allow the government to let us rot.”
Hussain said they had moved into a tent on a footpath behind Governor’s House, opposite the Lahore Press Club, hoping that the government would help them in a land dispute.
He said that five of his brothers killed his father, kicked him out of his own house and deprived him of a land inheritance worth Rs360 million.
He initially set up a protest camp in front of the Bahawalpur Press Club, which he said gained a lot of media attention. He alleged that his brothers then assaulted his wife and offered him Rs55 million to disappear. He failed to get police to register FIRs either in the land dispute or the alleged assault on his wife.
Hussain decided to come to Lahore with the hope of getting help from the government. He said he met Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif twice and was promised justice.
“I will now appeal to foreign countries because this country has let us down,” said Hussain, pointing in the direction of the American Consulate. “I have never heard of people sleeping on the streets in America.”
Some, however, doubt Hussain’s motives. A local shop owner said, “At first, we thought he was genuinely looking to settle the land dispute through an organised protest in front of the Press Club. But 13 months later he is now living here.” A police officer who frequently patrols the area said, “You can look at the people here and quickly see they do not have that much. They’re sleeping without blankets or pillows so it’s very difficult to think that they are here to simply beg.”
Hussain said that earlier he tried to bring his protest into the notice of the Chief Justice of Pakistan during his Lahore visit but was stopped by his security.
]He added he was assured by Raja Riaz, the senior provincial minister, that his issue would be resolved after he made him stop his car by lying on the road. In the end the family returned to the footpath opposite the Press Club.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2010.
A family from Bahawalpur attempted suicide in front of the Chief Minister’s Secretariat on Friday while a meeting to review the law and order situation was going on inside the secretariat.
Rajab Hussain, who has been living on a footpath opposite the Lahore Press Club for about 15 months, spilled some kerosene oil over his clothes, his wife and five children but was stopped by the security guards from lighting the fire. The family then barged heads against the iron gate.
Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Rehman Malik were meanwhile discussing the law and order situation.
“If we don’t find justice, we will kill ourselves,” Hussain’s wife had told The Express Tribune last week. She was holding a two year-old child in her arms. “It is better to die by our own hands than allow the government to let us rot.”
Hussain said they had moved into a tent on a footpath behind Governor’s House, opposite the Lahore Press Club, hoping that the government would help them in a land dispute.
He said that five of his brothers killed his father, kicked him out of his own house and deprived him of a land inheritance worth Rs360 million.
He initially set up a protest camp in front of the Bahawalpur Press Club, which he said gained a lot of media attention. He alleged that his brothers then assaulted his wife and offered him Rs55 million to disappear. He failed to get police to register FIRs either in the land dispute or the alleged assault on his wife.
Hussain decided to come to Lahore with the hope of getting help from the government. He said he met Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif twice and was promised justice.
“I will now appeal to foreign countries because this country has let us down,” said Hussain, pointing in the direction of the American Consulate. “I have never heard of people sleeping on the streets in America.”
Some, however, doubt Hussain’s motives. A local shop owner said, “At first, we thought he was genuinely looking to settle the land dispute through an organised protest in front of the Press Club. But 13 months later he is now living here.” A police officer who frequently patrols the area said, “You can look at the people here and quickly see they do not have that much. They’re sleeping without blankets or pillows so it’s very difficult to think that they are here to simply beg.”
Hussain said that earlier he tried to bring his protest into the notice of the Chief Justice of Pakistan during his Lahore visit but was stopped by his security.
]He added he was assured by Raja Riaz, the senior provincial minister, that his issue would be resolved after he made him stop his car by lying on the road. In the end the family returned to the footpath opposite the Press Club.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 30th, 2010.