KARACHI: Shehrazade Zafar Arif, the daughter of MQM-London leader Professor Dr Hasan Zafar Arif, says her father was not murdered as being portrayed by social media.
Professor Dr Hasan Zafar Arif, MQM-London's deputy convener, was found dead in a car in Karachi's Ilyas Goth area on Sunday. The body was shifted to Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre (JPMC) where Dr Seemi Jamali, the head of Emergency Department, claimed that no signs of torture or bullet wounds were found on the body.
The autopsy report has yet to shed light on actual cause of the death; however, in a Facebook statement, Shehrazade said her father died of natural causes.
Here is her full statement:
“My father, Dr. Zafar-Arif, died on Sunday the 14th of January of what all evidence points to as being a heart attack. The media is portraying his death as a brutal murder and some are, disgracefully, putting up photoshopped images of his body on social media with claims that he was tortured.
I don’t think I need to point out how disrespectful this is towards his memory and his family, not to mention dishonest and unethical. Certain people are trying to exploit his death for their own political agenda, while others are, out of a sense of love and admiration for him, trying to seek justice for what they believe to be a crime.
I never thought I would have to speak in such detail about my own father’s death, but the circumstances have left me no choice. We his family examined his body thoroughly as soon as we were brought on the scene, and we have been shown pictures of his body taken by the police immediately once they discovered it.
There is not a single mark on him, and no indication whatsoever that he was tortured or that his death was unnatural. The few spots of blood under his nose are not suspicious – I’ve been told that after death the body does not clot blood properly and so nosebleeds are common.
The circumstances under which he was found are not as dramatic or suspicious as the media wishes you to believe – he was missing for one night, his car was found in an area he was known to frequent, and his mobile phones were likely stolen through the rolled down windows of the car by members of the general public who were on the scene when the police arrived.
The post-mortem report is not yet out, we are waiting on it, and until then, we have no real reason to believe it was anything but a heart attack.
I hope those who read this understand that I of all people would be the last to cover up the truth about my father’s death. I only want the public to know the facts rather than believing lies, propaganda and exaggeration. Unless the postmortem report says otherwise, we must believe, based on all the evidence and my own account as a first-hand witness, that it was a natural death.
I would also like to take this opportunity to highlight the disrespectful manner in which his body was treated. It was taken to JPMC where it was left outside in an open ambulance for reporters to take pictures and make videos of, which they then went on to post on social media.
Shame on the JPMC staff and police for not putting a stop to this, and shame above all on the media for their lack of respect and common human decency and empathy. They also did not hesitate to photograph and film his family when we arrived on the scene, and at the graveyard when we buried him.
Please feel free to share this and I urge those who cared about him to exercise common sense and rationality over the next coming days, and not to jump to conclusions until the evidence calls for it.
I also urge you all to stop sharing fabricated or inaccurate reports, to stop posting images of my father’s body and to take down those that have already been posted – and, though it should go without saying, to not send these to his family or harass us any further in this difficult time. I am grateful to those who are sharing and posting commemorative accounts of his life and work with dignity and respect.
My father was not a victim, and I do not want him to be remembered as such. I will not allow his legacy to be based on lies. He belonged not only to me, but also to the people of Pakistan, whom he fought so hard for throughout his life."
