11 years on, tragedy for slain Imran Farooq’s family continues

LONDON: Exactly 11 years after the gruesome murder of the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq here in Edgware, United Kingdom, his widow Shumaila Imran Farooq has been admitted to a London hospital — unable to speak, deaf on the left side, and having severely limited ingestion capabilities.

Shumaila and her two sons, Aalishan Farooq and Wajdan Farooq, have not been provided any help by the MQM London wing, its Pakistan factions, or any of the London or Pakistan leaders, including those who are part of the federal government in Pakistan.

In June last year, a court in Pakistan sentenced three MQM men — Khalid Shamim, Mohsin Ali, and Moazzam Ali — to life imprisonment for the 2010 murder of Dr Imran Farooq and Scotland Yard has closed the file, but for Shumaila and her two sons, life has become more difficult than ever before.

Shumaila’s illnesses — including stage-4 cancer — together with the trauma of losing her husband to two killers on the evening of Sept 16, 2010, in London, have deteriorated her condition. According to hospital records, obtained this correspondent, Shumaila’s diagnosis is “T4N1M0 squamous cell carcinoma, left mandible, treated with resection and DCIA free flap followed by ongoing radiotherapy”.

At the Guy’s Hospital near London Bridge where Shumaila has received treatment, a hospital source shared that she has stage-4 cancer and “she had a 12-hour operation 0and is getting radiotherapy”.

The source explained: “Shumaila’s capacity for speech and ingestion is severely limited and she is deaf on the left side. She is unable to eat any solid food and relies only on liquids, supplied through a pipe."

The source said that last week, Shumaila visited the hospital for a check-up and doctors advised her to stay in hospital for three days. She was allowed to go home on Sunday and admitted again on Thursday, Sept 16 — the day of her husband’s assassination.

This correspondent met her at the hospital reception and tried to speak to her but she expressed her inability to speak and gestured that she cannot utter a sentence due to her condition.

The hospital source said that to increase Shumaila’s ability to take water and food, they will be doing a barium swallow test and, if required, a standard procedure where they use a balloon to increase the size of the neck.

While Shumaila spends time in hospital, her two sons who are aged 14 and 12, eat food from takeaways and stay alone at home, in between visiting their mother on their own. Aalishaan and Wajdan are studying in a local school in Edgware.

A source close to the family said that MQM-London had stopped all kinds of communication with Shumaila and her sons. They have not spoken to her in over a year, let alone providing any kind of financial help or assistance to her sons.

After MQM-Pakistan became part of the PTI-led federal government and this correspondent highlighted Shumaila’s terrible situation, a few MQM-Pakistan leaders said they would do something for Shumaila, but none of them seem to have come forward to support her.

On Thursday, Shumaila said on her Twitter account that she had been left alone to fight the battle against cancer. She tweeted that she and her sons have been "forgotten".

Meanwhile, both MQM-London and MQM-Pakistan are at loggerheads at the London High Court over half a dozen expensive London properties currently under the use of Altaf Hussain and his aides.

MQM-Pakistan has hired Barrister Nazar Mohammad from Legis Chambers to fight their case to take control of the properties, arguing that five around Edgware — with an estimated value of over £7 million — belong to MQM-Pakistan, because these were bought with the MQM's money. MQM-London is contesting the claim.

As far as Dr Imran Farooq’s widow is concerned, she lives in a tiny, rundown one-bedroom flat above a grocery shop, provided by the local council.