THIS is apropos the murder of my entire family in Askari III Cantt, Karachi, on February 29, 2012. A year has passed since the heinous crime shook the entire Karachi.

My parents, my brother, his wife and my 13-year-old niece were murdered in cold blood by their ex-driver. How I faced the grief and how I lived through it is something beyond my own comprehension.

The episode was beyond belief and the grief was incomprehensible. It took me a whole year to come to my senses. The murderer was caught six days later. He admitted to the crime in front of the police with live coverage on all major channels of the country.

The murder weapon (a knife) was recovered and his fingerprints have been matched on it. His DNA test is positive (as he had taken off his shirt and changed into my brothers).

The stolen jewellery has been recovered from another source who has testified that the murderer had kept the jewellery with him. He was caught because he had turned on my father’s mobile set which was traced with the help of CPLC.

How much more proof does the court need? The case has been going on for over a year in the city court. Our plea for trial in ATC was rejected by the chief justice on the grounds that the matter did not raise enough terror in society.

His counsel argued that he is innocent. He claims that he is innocent, now after a year. After all this proof? This is not a children’s horror story. The way he recounts the details of the night, my mother’s habit of always closing doors, her nature to get up during the night to check on closed doors and to look behind doors

How could he have described the scenes clearly? Even the greatest story teller could not have come up with such vivid details. So how could he? This was not a joke. This was not a simple burglary. It was cold-blooded murder of my entire family. I am terrorised when I think that he can come out of jail and commit the same crime again.

Will another person have to face the same tragedy as I did? I deserve justice. I appeal to the Chief Justice and the president of Pakistan to intervene on my behalf. This murderer has no political backing so there will be no political pressure.

It is unfortunate that our system lets a murderer of five people live in peace in jail. I wish I had created more media hue and cry and come in the limelight more but we were so shattered, so lost. A loss of one’s family members by unnatural death makes the family left behind go crazy with grief.

ZAITOON UMER Karachi