Rook

There’s something incredibly discerning about you. I fail to put my finger on it, just as the rain outside increases its pace. There’s little light in the room, peering in from the curtains, just the way you like it. You’re enamoured with the notion of undiscovered frailty, a naive notion.

We count and recount.

There are sparks all over the room, the blue tips of flames engulf us, one last time. I will help hold your drowning head above the water; I whisper in your ear.

One last time, let yourself go to the breaking waves.

House watch.

So, as I posted here before we were allotted a house in F7/4. The Secretary Ministry of Industries (where my father was the Joint Secretary) was a fantastic guy who after hearing about our predicament offered us the house he was supposed to be allotted (A grade 21 house).

Now, according to THE LAW, a retired officer can only ask for an extension for a 6 month period immediately after this retirement. The guy who is currently living in the house is a retired major who has now spend 10 months in the house. His name, fascinatingly enough, is Zia-ul-Haq.

So, that is 4 months that the guy has been living illegally. Oh, and he hasn’t even paid the rent for those four months. He got the extension from the interim Minister of Housing, and he didn’t get it in writing. Forgetting the fact that the minister CANNOT do that (BY L.A.W), the fact that he didn’t get anything in writing surely means no such contract exists?

Either way, a while back after being exasperated my mother decided to pursue the legal route, and took the case to the high court. There, a single bench judge decided the case in our favour (considering, you know, the absolute, black and white illegalities). The guy simply had NO case for retention. Either way, my mother offered him the house till June 30th, but his lawyer replied “let the case be decided on merit.”

The judge decided that we would get the house on or before the 15th of June. Why? Because that whore Zia-ul-Haq’s son was supposed to get married on the 7th of June.

Anyway, it is now the 12th of June. Last week, Zia-ul-Cunt decided to go the courts via an Intra court appeal, questioning the decision of the single bench. His appeal, mostly, consists of whinging about how the judge allegedly showed bias, did not ‘look at the law’ and other such inanities. Oh, and he mentions how he has no other shelter (aside from his family living in the States).

Again, now, the law clearly states that only ONCE can a 6 month retention be provided to RETIRED officers. There is no question of interpretation here; there is no question of ‘rules’ being relaxed. His ’shelter’ argument is bullshit too, for he is ONE retired officer while we are 4 people and have paid through the nose for the last 4 years for privately rented accomodation.

Anyway, today was the ‘hearing’ to decide what had to be done.

What happened then?

Well, my mother decided to forego representation because the lawyer was asking for too much for ONE hearing. No issues here though, because the arguments were straightforward and again there really, on the basis of law was NO argument whatsoever.

According to me mum, the judge seemed to be in favour of us till they took a recess to ‘contemplate’ the decision. Here, a lawyer friend of my father’s who couldn’t represent us (because he works for the MAN now) said that this was a fucked up move. One of the judges, apparently, knows the Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court (argh Mush you twat). Either way, the decision was that the judges asked my mom if we could let the guy have the house till July 31st 2008.

The guy’s retention period expires August 5th, 2008.

Now, the judge said that we should try and convince our landlady to let us stay till the 31st of July. My mom shall go tomorrow and essentially say that that can’t happen because the landlady has already got tenants lined up who have already paid up. Which IS, sort of, the case. Either way, the landlady is asking for 40k, for a 3 bedroom upper portion. :S

Anyway, as you might have noticed by now, the judges did NOT really make a decision, instead they have sat on the fence. I can only hope a ruptured colon is what they get.

You see, they had a decision to make from essentially two choices; either they could overrule the decision of the previous judge (on the basis of alleged – read bullshit – bias, or on the basis of ignorance of law. The law was NOT ignored, so the bias thing is their best hope and they’d be fools to state that), or they could stay the decision and order Zia-ul-Haq to hand us the keys to the house on the 15th of June.

The fact that they have basically chosen middle ground can only, i hope, mean that they know they have very little choice. They cannot really overrule the decision because that would be, quite frankly, illegal. So, instead of staying the decision, they’ve tried to achieve some ‘middle’ ground. Does that not smack of collusion?

Please though, if any lawyers are reading this and can help clarify the situation or help is any way, shape, or form possible, I’d be extremely obliged.

I suppose they understand that they can’t really do anything; they can’t distinguish the case and have to follow precedent here. As I have said, if you’re arguing on the basis of ‘lack of shelter’ and ‘bias’, you can’t really have a case based on legal arguments, can you?

Either way, tomorrow we shall know what happens after my mom tells the judges that if they stick to the 31st July bakwas, we’ll be out on the street for 45 days.

This, ladies and gentlemen, is our country. Either that, or we’re an incredibly unlucky family. I think it’s a bit of both.

“i really don’t know what to say about this cont’d”

Interested readers of my blog may have read the post before my last football post; the one that talked about a 17 year old girl in Iraq killed by her father and brothers for falling in love with a British soldier.

Those who read the article linked to The Guardian story would’ve noticed that the mother was aghast over the whole debacle, and had fled to relatives crying and eventually telling the media about what scum her husband was, and how she couldn’t believe he took the life of his own daughter for merely having feelings about a British soldier.

Today, I clicked on the Guardian feed I have on my browser to see a link that said “Mother shot defying girl’s killers.”

I had a depressing visceral feeling that this would be what I thought it would be about; and it was.

Leila Hussein lived her last few weeks in terror. Moving constantly from safe house to safe house, she dared to stay no longer than four days at each. It was the price she was forced to pay after denouncing and divorcing her husband – the man she witnessed suffocate, stamp on, then stab their young daughter Rand in a brutal ‘honour’ killing for which he has shown no remorse.

Though she feared reprisals for speaking out, she really believed that she would soon be safe. Arrangements were well under way to smuggle her to the Jordanian capital, Amman. In fact, she was on her way to meet the person who would help her escape when a car drew up alongside her and two other women who were walking her to a taxi. Five bullets were fired: three of them hit Leila, 41. She died in hospital after futile attempts to save her.

Her death, on 17 May, is the shocking denouement to a tragedy which had its origins in an innocent friendship between her student daughter, Rand Abdel-Qader, 17, and a blond, 22-year-old British soldier known only as Paul.

Rest of it is here.

Despite my quasi-rant in the last post addressing these unevents, I really had very little to say in the form of coherent though, mostly because I simply fail to understand the behaviour, and the lack of repercussions for this sort of behaviour.

For this to be considered ‘regular’ and ‘respectable’ is beyond the understanding of both Islam and any form of morals. I can only hope that this man and his sons are handed the worst possible punishments both in this world and in the hereafter.

The daughter was brutally murdered for falling in love with a Brit. The wife brutally murdered for calling her husband scum because he murdered with his own hands their daughter.