By Shaher Bano Khan
Lying six feet beneath the earth, Usman Kakar, the ex-senator from District Killa Saifullah, Balochistan, and provincial president The of the Pukhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party (PkMAP), has also been silenced. He is neither the first nor unfortunately the last political leader to die in circumstances raising questions without the hope of a credible response. In fact, his death has shaken the Pukhtun in the same manner as did the assassination of the late prime minister, Ms Benazir Bhutto in December 2007.
Mr Usman Kakar was to the Pukhtun what Ms Bhutto was to Pakistan.
In the early half of the year, Mr Usman Kakar, valiantly addressing the Senate, had provided a precursor to the events leading to his death. He had forewarned the House that he was receiving death threats to desist from demanding rule of law and a framework of governance outlined in the Constitution of Pakistan, providing a normative matrix to each democratic institution. Alas! The recommendation, to whom it may concern, did not go down very well.
Hence, on June 17, 2021, Mr Kakar was found lying in a pool of blood on the floor of his home at Killa Saifulla. Apparently, according to a spokesperson of the PkMAP, Mr Kakar had suffered a brain hemorrhage and was critical when brought to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of a local hospital in Quetta.
Three days later on June 21, 2021, the ex-senator from Killa Saifulla died initiating a string of allegations from both the family and members of his party. His son, Khushal Kakar told Radio Mashaal that his father was ‘found lying on a carpet in the guest room on June 17, with blood flowing from his head’. He inferred the well planned assassination was committed by two people, one holding him while the other tendering the fatal blow to the head.
Mr Usman Kakar’s personal physician, Dr Samad Panezai, was also not certain about the cause of the injury and corroborated with the son’s statement of finding a badly injured Mr Usman Kakar lying on a carpet at his house.
At a press conference, following the post mortem, the Balochistan home minister, Mir Ziaulla and the parliamentary secretary for health, Dr Baledi dispelled rumours of assassination and concluded the post mortem did not show commission of a violent act to cause head injury. Their diagnostic analysis could have held some weight if not for Dr Naqibullah Achakzai’s perplexing statement. Dr Achakzai was one of those doctors who had initially treated Mr Usman Kakar at a hospital in Quetta.
He told the media he was informed by someone, whose name he did not mention at the press briefing, that the head injury was caused by a fall in the washroom.
Mr Mehmood Khan Achakzai, leader of the PkMAP, should demand a forensic investigation to determine the cause of the injury.
A failure to provide evidentiary conclusion to Mr Usman Kakar’s death will inevitably put the state in the dock. PAK DESTINY
Total lie