Zilleh Shah was a mentally and emotionally disturbed person. On that account he never grew out of his childhood. Such people in common parlance are called, ” Darwesh; Allah Log; or Masoom”. They are capable of intense devotion, but are free of all traces of ill will. And they are no threat to anyone.
But his body was the recipient of injuries and wounds so heartless and barbaric that these could not have been inflicted upon him without an inordinate degree of malice.
So, the way they destroyed his life evokes, and will continue to evoke, compassion even in the most hardened of hearts. It is for this reason he has already found his way into the folklore of Punjab when his body is not yet cold.
And it is for this reason that even if attempts at the cover up of his murder were extremely cogent, they would scarcely find credence. Much less will be the case of the fumbling narratives being put out to explain away a murder most foul.
Even a peripheral examination of the story of his murder gives rise to questions which have not been answered.
Some of these questions are:
–What led the district administration of Lahore to formally allow PTI’s election rally on 08 March, and then to abruptly withdraw their permission, and who are the people who decided to withdraw the same? This is where any inquiry should begin because everything else took place within this circle of criminally inspired intent.
–There is irrefutable evidence that Zilleh Shah was picked up and put into a police van at 4:20 pm. And then his broken body was found outside the district hospital at 7:05 pm. What did the police do to him in between?
–Why did the police refuse to accept a written application from his father to register an FIR for four hours, and when they finally took the application, why did they refuse to give him a computerized receipt number? Why was this?
–Did IG Punjab visit the hospital to sequester certain hospital records; and if so, what were these records; and why did he take them?
–Was permission to perform postmortem examination on the deceased done with the permission of the family; and if not, why not?
–What did the police find so compelling that they were moved to charge Imran Khan and some of his senior party members for this murder?
–And following this, what compelling evidence moved Mohsin Naqvi [C.M Punjab] and Mr Usman Anwar, the IG of Punjab Police, to conclusively assert that Zilleh Sha and been killed in a road accident?
–So, what is the final position of Mohsin Naqvi and his IG Police…. was it Imran Khan who killed Zilleh Shah, or was he killed in a road accident? And if there is this variance, why is it so?
–Mariam Safdar’s audio suggesting a narrative to cover up this murder has by now become viral. At what stage of the cover up was she included in this fraudulent attempt, and who brought her into this charmed circle?
No person of consequence in Pakistan has ever paid for his criminality. Perhaps no one ever will. But for everything there is a first time. Perhaps that time is upon us. Perhaps Mohsin Naqvi, IG Usman Anwar, and Mariam Safdar will become our first triumvirate to face the music, the first faint strains of which may already be heard playing.
The army can clearly see which way Pakistan is being driven. And the army can rescue the country if it wants to. The way is clear, and this lies in immediate elections, free and fair. The last question which remains to be answered therefore is, will the army move to the rescue of Pakistan, or are there reasons more compelling to see Pakistan being destroyed than saving it?