I share with you a very heart touching article written by Anwar Mansuri and Munawer Azeem for DAWN’s Crime Diary. I suggest everyone to take the time to read this summarized reproduction of Umar Deen‘s suicide note. I fear this is just the tip of the ice-berg unless immediate drastic measures are not taken to bring our people out of the crushing economy things are bound to get worse. It is sad to see our endless list of corrupt leaders whitewash their own millions of dollars of debt while and sadly this poor Pakistani could not meet his commitment for the Rs. 80,000 loan he needed to make ends meet basically to survive
The image attached is written and signed by Umar Deen himself ‘Watan Ki Mitti Gawah Rahna [Bear Witness With Me Dear Motherland]’ and finally he wraps up his note with a touching statement I know my suicide will not bring any revolution in the country but it must not go waste. Let us, as citizens of Pakistan, promise him to not let his suicide go waste.
Published in DAWN on 9th April 2008
Last Friday an ice-cream vendor, Umar Deen, committed suicide by shooting himself at Aabpara chowk, Islamabad’s busiest and oldest landmark. Next day’s newspapers reported routinely that financial problems had driven him to the desperate act.
And that was the end of the sad story for the society. But should it be?
Umar, 28, left behind a pretty long suicide note titled Watan Ki Mitti Gawah Rehna (Bear Witness With Me Dear Motherland). Dawn is publishing excerpts from this testimony of a self-respecting youngman against a callous world. Written at leisure and with emotion, but not bitterness, the note has two parts — one addressed to his family and the other to the society. A matriculate, Umar apparently planned to take his life in front of the Parliament House as mentioned on the opening page of his suicide note book which he begins with seeking forgiveness from his mother for his act.
After a few Urdu couplets, reflecting the hard life he had lived, and decided to end, he writes an imaginary verdict which reads: “The court of Islamic Republic of Pakistan finds accused Umar Deen, alias Mazhar Iqbal (Umar Udas), guilty of not paying the money he owed to usurers and for living in worst of conditions and, rejecting all his mercy appeals, sentences him to death”.
As if he wanted it to be the last such sentence, Umar ended the verdict with the words: “The court is adjourned”.
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