Many Pakistani nationals have been awarded death sentence and life imprisonment in different countries of the world on account of crimes of different nature, but the agony their family members in Pakistan go trhough cannot be described in words. Rafia Bibi, 70, is an unlucky woman who has lost his son in China after the Chinese Supreme Court awarded him death sentence. Besides other human wishes, seeing the loved ones before their death is also one of the biggest desire of every person, but Rafia, unfortunately, is one of those mothers who cannot see her son when he was passing through the last stages of his life. “My son is still in front of my eyes and he will remain alive in my dreams,” said Rafia, while talking to Pakistan Today, as her eyes were full of tears. Syed Zahid Hussain, 30, was a resident of Haripur. He had a business of import and export of jewellery in Thailand and visited china in connection with some business deal.
Narrating the fateful story, which has ruined the lives of Zahid’s family members, Rafia said in December 2008, Zahid went to China and stayed there for four days, along with his five to six business partners. “One morning, the police officials implicated Zahid in a drug case after his partners levelled false allegations against him of being involved in drug trafficking,” she said, adding that they wanted to take revenge from him on some business issues.
“It was unbelievable that my son can do such act, while the Chinese police also did not find heroin or other drug from my son’s possession,” she added.
The tormented mother was of the view that whether his son had committed the crime or not, but the fact was that he was a Pakistani national, he grew up here but no government authority moved forward to save him or appeal China at the governmental level.
“At that time Chinese authorities told us that if the Government of Pakistan make an appeal before them, Zahid’s death sentence can be averted or been delayed,” Rafia said, adding that had the government made a plea before China, my son might be alive.
She told Pakistan Today that they made repeated appeals to the prime minister and the president but they paid no heed towards the issue. Tasneem Fatima, a sister of the deceased, told this scribe that she met Ansar Barni and other human rights activists to seek help but failed to save his brother.
She added that a number of Pakistani prisoners were still present in Chinese jails, who could get relief if the Pakistani authorities chose to help them.
Ansar Barni Trust spokesman Muhammad Adnan told Pakistan Today that they tried to save Zahid but failed to do so, adding that their organisation was now trying to minimise the life imprisonment of the co-accused of Zahid, who was sentenced by the same court.
He said there was no legislation under which the Pakistani prisoners could be shifted to the jails in their motherland.
“But we have appealed to the ambassadors of both the countries to shift the co-accused of Zahid to a Pakistani jail.”
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