KARACHI: With no one at his sister’s home in North Nazimabad’s ‘S’ Block, and some other people in his old house in the same block staring back blankly, the first thought crossing the mind after Saulat Mirza’s spilling the beans in Machh jail was that maybe the government had swiftly moved the family to a safe and secret place.

When we approached, a few young men waiting next to their motorbikes outside his sister Sumaira Wajahat’s two-storey building said that they had heard that the family lived in Gulshan-i-Maymar. More search ended in finding a posh two-storey joint family residence in Sector U of the area with a few police personnel guarding the front and back roads leading to it. An elderly man there with a bandage on his right cheek was politely refusing to face news channel cameras though was willing to speak with representatives of the print media. Someone said he was Saulat’s brother Farhat Ali Khan, who had mysteriously disappeared a few days back but had returned now.

Take a look: A death cell for a triple murderer

On the two balconies of the house some children were busy playing while others watched the goings-on below. A few women sat on a bench outside the gate speaking quietly among themselves. One of them, Khujista Bibi, Saulat’s cousin and sister-in-law, had only returned from Machh that morning. With too much generator noise, the family decided to talk indoors.

“I had no idea that Saulat’s hanging had been stayed until I reached home. On the way from Machh I was not getting any phone signal and when I did, I was told by family to reach home quick. I knew that the hanging must have been carried out by that time but didn’t know what to make of the cheerful faces here,” the woman said inside their wood-panelled living room with sheets spread on the carpet. The family had been praying, reading on beads and carrying out various wazeefa there. The coffee tables had been pushed to one side with many prayer beads on them.

“Though we knew it and were awake the whole night, we didn’t want to say too much over the phone then,” Saulat’s brother said. “We were also taken aback by successive happenings of late Wednesday night. But soon after the channels started showing Saulat’s new video, we noticed police pickups and personnel surrounding our house. They said they were here for our protection.”

Know more: Killed KESC chief on Altaf Hussain's orders, Saulat Mirza claims

Meanwhile, Saulat’s wife, Nikhat, was still in Machh with their nine-month-old baby boy Jazim and a few other family members. “The meeting we had with Saulat in Machh jail on Tuesday, which we thought to be our final one with him, was carried out through two layers of mesh wire. It was also the first time he met his only child but although we were extremely emotional, Saulat seemed very much in control. Just before we were leaving, he called out to his wife and told her not to worry too much as he would be fine, that nothing was going to happen to him. We thought he was trying to give us strength but he must have known something though he shared nothing about his second video with us. We have no idea when it was filmed,” said the sister-in-law.

Suddenly, the children playing upstairs in the balconies chased each other into the living room. The elders became quiet till they ran out again. “We don’t discuss these things in front of the little ones. They have seen Saulat’s photos and think he is away somewhere. They call him Kaka,” the brother said.

Bringing out his mobile phone, he showed a younger and quite unrecognisable photo of Saulat with a black moustache and wearing a blue and red jacket. “He was so handsome. Look what has happened to him wasting away his youth behind bars all these years. Sometimes I just lose it thinking what he has done to himself,” the brother said while showing an innocent childhood photo of Saulat. “He was innocent once. We like to remember him during those days. The youngest of us 11 siblings, six brothers and five sisters, he was extremely intelligent with a great sense of humour, too. But then growing up, he became disillusioned. Then as he got more involved in politics, he started vanishing from home. But the few occasions when he would be home we would all be laughing. He could be very funny, too,” the brother reminisced.

“In Karachi prison, too, where he also did his Master’s, he made friends with the prison staff. Then if anyone approached him with any problem he tried helping them even from behind bars. Once we had to collect Rs1.2 million to offer as blood money to these people whose family member had been killed by a youngster named Jaggu. That Jaggu today is a free man thanks to Saulat,” the brother said.

Asked if they were worried about their own safety after the recent developments, the brother said: “Well, we know of the dangers. But we are a very big family with children, nieces, nephews and their children, who all have their own lives. We have changed several houses where we didn’t even make it known who we were. Where would we run? Right now we are just relieved that the hanging has been stayed, hopefully it would lead to a complete pardon. He obviously knows a lot, and will not stay silent anymore.”

Published in Dawn March 20th, 2015

On a mobile phone? Get the Dawn Mobile App: Apple Store | Google Play