‘Everyone is firing bullets from our shoulders’

Transcripts from an interview with Faheem’s family shows they were concealing facts and felt they were being used

SHUMAILA’S SUICIDE?
Q: What happened with Shumaila?
A: Shumaila was disheartened and took wheat poison pills. She fainted while she was reading the Quran. She was taken to Allied Hospital in Faisalabad. Her stomach was washed. Doctors told us twice. At 330 she was fine and gave two interviews. At 4pm, she had died. Doctors kept her breathing on life-support. Finally they told us at 2am that she had died. But she had been dead since 4pm.

Q: Do you think she died of the pills she took?
A: The answer would be in the postmortem.

Q: Do you have the postmortem?
A: We have not been given the postmortem. When we pursued it the officials in charge would say it has been transferred. First, from Faisalabad to Lahore, and then Lahore to Islamabad; we do not understand this.

Q: What’s your view?
A: We know it was not caused by the pills. She gave two interviews. Doctors kept us from seeing her after 4pm.

Q: Why do you not speak about it?
A: We will speak at the right time. We think it would hurt the case against Raymond. But we will spill the beans after Raymond is taken to task.

Q: Why not let the details out?
A: If we do then the main case may weaken.

Q: But both are different cases?
A: No. We have assessed and we think pursuing it will do so.
Waseem, Faheem’s brother

PRESSURE
Q: Has anyone contacted you? Is there any pressure on you?
A: No one from either the PML-N or the PPP has contacted us. Imran Khan and the religious parties have come. We received two calls from the Americans. The first was the day after Faheem’s murder. The second was the day when John Kerry came. We told them we were not ready to meet them. We wanted justice to be done – and so thought it pointless to meet.

Q: Who do you think is sincere?
A: The PML-N. We were told that Raymond was called by the federal government and a police officer was taking him to Islamabad when the Punjab government ordered him back.

Q: Are you sincere when you say there is no pressure?
[FATHER] Everyone is firing bullets from our shoulders. We do not retain the power to make our own choice.
[WASEEM] (Interjects) But we want what they want. We want Raymond hanged.

COMPENSATION:
Q: What about the offer of blood money?
A: [WASEEM] We will not change our stance. But those who back us only back us through words – not actual support. If we accept the blood money we will be bashed by those who claim to support us. We have not been offered blood money. Where is the Friday Times based? [‘It is Pakistani’] Is it a daily? [‘No, weekly’] They claimed we had been offered blood money and we had accepted. We may contemplate legal action against them.
[FATHER] No one would let us live here if we accepted the blood money. A newsreport citing we had accepted it was printed yesterday. People I met at the chai stall called me without honour. We cannot take our own decision. We are too weak to pursue the case on our own.

RELEASE:
Q: What if Raymond is let go?
A: If Raymond is let go, our trust is with the people and the courts. The government has planned to present false papers certifying Raymond’s diplomatic immunity. They asked them for a 3 week period. If they had the papers, why would they have asked for time.

- The interview was conducted at Faheem’s now abandoned house on February 22, 2010 and printed in the Review in Pakistan Today on 20th March 2010