Zohra Shehzad, the widow of Faizan Haider, one of the two men gunned down on 27 January at Mozang Chowk in Lahore by US citizen Raymond Davis, claims that her in-laws kept her out of the loop on purpose in the case against Davis. Subsequently, Zohra, who says she is three months pregnant, has moved to her parents’ house and has vowed to not go back to her in-laws.
“They kept all the legal proceedings hidden from me. I wasn’t even included as a complainant in the case against my husband’s killer,” she told Pakistan Today. “I’m not literate; I didn’t know what had to be done.” Zohra said that she had initially gone to her parents’ house to counter depression that had set in after Haider’s death.
Once there, ‘people’ started asking her why, as Haider’s widow, she had not been made a complainant in the case, and why she did not know anything about the legal proceedings. “I realised that they had kept me out of the loop on purpose,” she said. “I’ve been abandoned!”
Meanwhile, Faizan Haider’s older brother, Imran Haider, is the only complainant in the case. “My name was put up, given the situation at the time. There’s no other reason,” Imran said, without explaining what ‘the situation at the time’ meant. He said that Zohra had gone to her parents’ house of her own free will, and expressed complete ignorance about her activities there.
“Until very recently, no one even knew that Faizan had a widow,” Zohra said. “We were married in November last year. They weren’t related to us. Some mutual friends set the ‘rishta’ up. After Faizan’s death, these people appeared in the media as the only people related to him, and kept pushing me in the background.
“After I came to my parents’ house, I contacted media personnel on my own in order to tell my story to people. My husband wasn’t very rich; he hasn’t left me any money. He had a small mobile phone repair shop; even that has been taken over by my in-laws. If anything, I have the sole right to any settlements, Diyat (blood money) for instance, that are reached in the case.
“Faizan had five sisters; all of them are married. His three remaining brothers all have jobs. His mother is well-taken care of. Whom do I have? Who will take care of or fend for my unborn child?”
