KARACHI: “Parween Rehman’s case is important for the survival of the Orangi Pilot Project and for all of us too. How many things are we going to forget? Are we going to forget this murder also?” Advocate Faisal Siddiqi asked while speaking at the 15th Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan Development Forum at the National Institute of Management on Tuesday.

The forum was arranged to remember the pioneer of rural development work in Pakistan, Akhter Hameed Khan, and his protégée Parween, who was killed in March last year. Friends and associates remembered both with equal affection but the mere mention of Parween’s murder brought tears to many eyes.

To commemorate Parween’s life and her work a documentary was shown that was made during the Sahil Bachao Tehreek, a battle for Karachi’s waterfront in 2007. The documentary comprised Parween’s interviews speaking about the continuing encroachment of the sea and being up for sale. In one clip she said, “Water has a therapeutic effect on anyone going through stress or depression. I don’t understand the need to put benches and walking track near the sea. In Karachi the sea is used for dumping 340 million gallons of industrial and sewerage waste through various pipes. We can control the smaller pipes leading to the sea. But for the bigger ones, we need government help.”

She went on to say that everything is for sale in Karachi, including the sea. “There’s no encroachment where the sea is concerned but it is being sold. The evidence of it was seen in the 2006 torrential rains in Karachi, where DHA went under water. When you sold the land meant for the sea, the water redirects towards the societies, because it needs a route to flow. When you mess with the sea, it takes its revenge,” she added politely.

Speaking about the skewed notions of development, she said, “I don’t see construction of a hotel as development. Why should Karachi follow the model of Dubai? Karachi should first become Karachi.”

Clip after clip, Rehman was shown speaking about development, the need for people to come together to help each other, and most importantly to take the government on board. When she started working for the OPP in 1981, her first assignment was to start from a lane from where took the project forward. By 1984, people from other streets started coming to her after witnessing her work in other areas.

Investigation needs to be broadened

Taking the government’s help where needed and bringing the people around to work for the community are two of the biggest strengths of the OPP. This trait was inculcated by OPP founder Akhtar Hameed Khan and followed by Parween. Her 28-year-long career is the proof of leading by example until it ended on March 2013. She was being driven home around 7:30pm from Pakhtun Market, Manghopir Road, when two gunmen on a motorbike shot her. Though she was soon taken to the Abbasi Shaheed Hospital, she was pronounced dead on arrival.

Kamran Sheikh, the attorney in Parween’s ongoing case in the Supreme Court, while narrating the incidents of the ensuing months said, “I got her case in July 2013 and since the beginning I sensed the Sindh government’s hesitation and the Sindh police wanting to shut the case. Because two days after her death, a man named Qari Bilal was killed in an encounter, which according to the police was the man behind her murder.” He added that the police made this assertion after finding similar spent bullets from the site of her murder.

Sheikh added that Parween’s case was of the utmost importance for the Supreme Court. “Our pleas for taking interest in her case were taken seriously only after an OPP director survived an attack on his life in February 2014.” Soon after, inquiries were made and Qari Bilal’s involvement in the case was looked with suspicion by the SC.

Sheikh added, “The investigation into Parween’s case needs to be broadened to include possible groups and people whose interest was in Gadap and Northern Bypass, areas she was working to resettle.”

At the moment, DIG CID Sultan Khwaja is the special investigation officer in Parween’s case who was appointed by the SC in April 2014. In July, Khwaja was further notified by the SC to be a part of the Joint Investigation Team, with officials of ISI, FIA and Sindh police investigating the case.

Sheikh further said that in one of the hearings by the SC, “the court asked the officials investigating the case to report in confidentiality rather than filing documents because it might be thwarted by powerful elements.”

Lawyer Faisal Siddiqi said, “Parveen is powerful even after her death. It is evident by the fact that this case is being supported by individuals who don’t want the case to close down. We are willing to put up a long fight.”

Speaking about Parween’s sister, Aquila Ismail, he said that it was heartening to see her present in every proceeding. “She still asks me though: ‘Why was it necessary to kill her, kya sirf dara nahi saktay thay?’” added Siddiqi.

Published in Dawn, December 31st, 2014