Some of the readership of TLTP will know that I have written on the genocide ongoing in Palestine and that the twitter account @Justice4Farooq run by my sister, Yasmin, has been active on this issue. Palestine has always been close to my heart and that of my brother Farooq’s. I cannot see how one can be Muslim and then ignore the desecration of Al-Aqsa Mosque in particular.
Al-Aqsa Mosque, our third holiest site, is mentioned in the Qu’ran and we are encouraged to visit and pray there. Al-Aqsa Mosque was the place of the Night Journey (Al-Isra) of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) from where he ascended heaven and was the first Qibla.
Religious reasons should be sufficient alone but the atrocities that one is witnessing daily has filled one’s heart with pure rage at Muslim impotence. The Palestinians have suffered for 75 years – far more than my existence but this time, the impact of these massacres has been more acute in the aftermath of my own brother’s assassination. The wounds of that loss which will never heal are being slashed repeatedly as we see in real-time Palestinian children burnt beyond recognition, beheaded and buried under rubble.
It’s not just the death but the indignity to which they’ve been subjected – even the martyrs are not allowed to rest in peace as the Israeli terrorists bulldoze cemeteries and have stolen corpses. That pain and what feels like an indignity persists in our fight for justice.
We have already lost our precious brother – yet the justice system moves at a snail’s pace to procure attendance of the Accused persons behind my brother assassination. Since the Islamabad High Court ruled that Additional District & Sessions Judge Sipra had “erred in law” in August 2023 and allowed my private complaint, we have had several hearings with no substantial progress. The court is slow at what should be usual “procedure”.
The Accused came readily enough when notices had not been issued yet they don’t seem too keen to proceed with protesting their innocence. After notices were issued to the Accused, a variety of excuses have been produced. The owner of Ramada by Wyndham hotel on Club Road in Islamabad has now been ill twice – he looked in peak health yet his “doctor’s note” has been accepted by Honourable Additional District & Sessions Judge Sikandar Khan.
For a couple of hearings a few Accused didn’t show up and notices were re-issued and indeed, one of the Accused has now failed to show on three occasions – yet bizarrely there appears no penalty. At the last hearing some of the Accused had still not filed the surety bonds with the court. My brother was murdered. Murder is a heinous crime – it’s not money or land that is in dispute here but a crime that the Qu’ran states “… that whoever kills a soul unless for a soul or for corruption [done] in the land – it is as if he had slain mankind entirely”. It cannot be clearer than this. So is the Court always so lenient? Is it just inefficient? I also ponder, how long the Court can endure perceived disrespect from the Accused. Yet, more crucially, how long will the Court permit itself to be treated with disrespect by the Accused? Those questions may only find answers in the wisdom of the Honourable Judge Sikandar Khan.
