1. PERJURY
by Ubaid Ullah Khan
Noman Sawoo, also known as prisoner 324, opened his eyes at 4:45 a.m.,
awakened by the rattle of a police constable pushing a large metal cart on
wheels along the hallway. As usual at the start of the day, the sky was dark
outside the barred windows of Noman's cell. Inside, electric lights had come on
automatically throughout the block as the constable began distributing breakfast
to his prisoners.
The room, in which Noman was confined did not permit a view of the hallway.
Still, the constable and his cart could be heard advancing from cell to cell before
finally stopping outside Noman's door. During the wait, Noman pulled a long
white shalwar kameez over his head. On the chest of the shirt, his prisoner
number was stenciled in large black numerals. Noman turned down the top
corner of page 53 in a book his parents had been allowed to send him. This was
his fifty-third day in jail.
The lock rattled, and the door swung open. Noman studied the constable's dark
grey uniform jacket and cream colored trousers as the man roughly handed him
a steel plate of naan flatbread together with a steel cup of tepid green tea.
Noman remained seated on the edge of his bed to avoid presenting any
appearance of mischief. "Your trial will reconvene at one this afternoon," the
constable told him. "Be ready by noon."
This was the second day of Noman's murder trial before the High Court in
Quetta. As on the previous day, heavy shackles and chains were applied that
hobbled Noman's legs and dragged at his hands. He shuffled from the jail to the
court room under the watchful eye of the constable, while the weight of the
shackles cut into his skin as he went. Noman bled slightly at the wrists and
ankles, and his shortened gait caused him to stumble, bruising his sandaled toes
painfully.
In the courtroom, a crowd of men and women were gathered to observe the
trial. Angry voices muttered upon Noman's arrival until, under the stern gaze of
the judge, the spectators finally hushed. In his crisp white shirt and black three-
piece suit, the judge commanded the spectators' respect, even before he rapped
his gavel on the bench top and called the trial to order.
The previous day, a series of witnesses had positively identified Noman Sawoo
as the individual who, during a gun battle in 2007, had fired his gun at Plar
Bakhtawar, ending his life. After calling all the witnesses against Noman, the
prosecutor urged the judge to condemn this prisoner to be hung by the neck
until dead.

2. On the present day however, Noman's defense attorney would seek to establish
that the shooting was done in self defense and was not a murder committed
upon an innocent man. As the accused, Noman was sitting in the dock, a
wooden booth with plexiglass surrounding it. There he was kept until it was
his turn to enter the witness stand. The court constable instructed Noman to
place his hand upon the Holy Qur'an and swear to be truthful. After taking this
oath, Noman sat down in the witness box, with the shackles and chains still
upon him and with a prisoner number emblazoned on his chest.
"Please describe how you met the daughter of the dead man," his defense
lawyer requested.
Noman replied, "Nazaneen Bakhtawar is from my village. It was during a
wedding at our home that I saw her. Everyone was enjoying the celebration; the
boys were playing, the elders were having deep conversations, and a few
beautiful girls were dancing to the wedding songs. I was lounging on a floor
cushion and watching the cheerful scene. Suddenly, a girl with silky hair caught
my attention. Since she was part of the wedding group, her hands were
patterned with intricate mehendi drawings, and she wore a yellow dress like the
other young women there. Around each of her ankles glittered payal bangles,
which flashed as she danced gracefully to a wedding folk song. Her smile and
hand gestures gripped my attention, and I kept staring at her, though she did not
notice my fascination.
"I considered Nazaneen to be like a fairy dancing in Heaven. In these few
moments, my heart flooded with love for her. That night and every night after,
my sleep eluded me. I was restless all day and night as I thought of her. Soon,
I discovered her name and which house was hers, and then I sat at the end of the
street every day, simply to stare at the place where she lived.
"It turned out that she often sat on the garden wall to enjoy the breeze and look
out onto the fields. I noticed this and, finally, I walked through the grain to
greet her. We spoke very shyly every day after that. She understood that I
admired her, and she began to feel the same way toward me. I returned many
times, merely to speak a few words with her as she sat on the wall above me.
She told me about her studies in college, about her family, about the things she
liked and disliked. We began to fall in love, and that feeling was enormous.
Honorable judge, my life was changed entirely. I was filled with joy, but this
happy time in our lives was soon to end."
Noman paused with tears in his eyes, and the attorney asked him to recount
what happened next.

3. ‘’One day we were speaking happily, she on the wall and I standing amid the
grain, when suddenly Saddam, a back street boy of our village, came around the
corner of the garden and saw us conversing together. Nazaneen did not like
Saddam nor did her family like him. Saddam's reputation in society was quite a
miserable one, because he bullies whomever he can, and he also tells lies to
make trouble for others. When Saddam saw us talking together, he perceived he
could gain power over us by portraying our relationship in a wrong way.
"Saddam rushed forward aggressively and accused us of adultery. He threatened
to say we were behaving indecently unless we agreed to abandon our love. He
demanded that I leave off seeing Nazaneen, because he himself wanted her. At
the same time, he threatened her that, if she refused him, he would denounce her
for an adulteress. He promised to get several of his friends to repeat his
accusation. In the face of these frightening threats, we both held tightly to our
love and said we would trust and leave our case in the hands of Allah. Nazaneen
and I both knew that Saddam was highly unlikely to leave us alone after that, so
she arranged to return early to her college studies in the capital.
"Although I seldom saw Nazaneen from that point on, I remained serious and
sincere in my love for her. Unfortunately, as we both realized was inevitable,
that bastard Saddam did not forget. Instead, he was busily brewing up evil for
us. After he had arranged with his friends that they would support his story, he
approached Nazaneen's uncle and said, 'This boy, Noman, has used your niece
for his enjoyment. He has ruined your family’s honor. Therefore you should
kill him.' The uncle believed Saddam's words and, in his rage, he began to plot
how he would kill us both. My love was away at school still, and there she was
warned by her sisters' phone calls about their uncle's deadly intentions.
"Honorable judge, my love quickly phoned me with news of this 'honor' grudge
against us, but I insisted, 'Our love is honest, and no one can do us harm.' One
night after that, as I was coming from my relative’s house along a street that was
drowned in darkness, a group of men stepped out into my path with weapons
and torches in their hands. Nazaneen's uncle stood in front of the gang of men.
I knew this was no friendly welcoming party, but I tried to approach and hug my
lover's uncle as my friend. In response, he pushed me away and called me vile
names. He asked, "Why are you playing with my family’s honor?"
When I replied, "You are misguided, sir," he slapped me in the face and shouted,
‘’You liar!’’ Then he and the others knocked me down and started kicking me
and beating me with their weapons. They tore at my clothes and stomped me.
As I lay helpless, her uncle stabbed me in the stomach twice with a sharp knife.
I cried for help, but no help came. The men scattered and left me lying there,
wounded and alone in the street. My blood ran freely onto the path, and soon I

4. lost consciousness.
When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a hospital bed, with my whole
family around me. They were weeping due to my dangerous condition. The
very next day, my father and his brother arrived in our village from Qatar where
they had been working. In the hospital, they asked me, "Who did this?" but I
lied and said, "I don’t know." I did not want them to avenge the attack on me.
"My doctor received an anonymous phone call saying he must not cure me if he
wanted to live. The doctor told my father, who replied, "You should leave town.
I don’t want you to suffer because of my son's trouble." Other doctors agreed
that they would run the hospital while my doctor went away. Nazaneen stayed
at her college and did not come home to the village, since her uncle was making
threats against her too.
"Your Honor, as time passed, I became well enough to leave the hospital. I
went to meet my love in the city, and when she saw me, she cried and hugged
me with passion. I told her that I would not seek revenge against her family. In
fact, to prevent further violence, I had concealed the names of those who had
beaten and stabbed me. Nazaneen blessed me for this. The she said her sisters
had just told her that day that their uncle was planning a fresh attack, this time
on my entire family.
"When I got home to our village, I told my relatives about the possible attack on
us. I suggested we leave our home, but my father said, 'If they are going to
attack us, then we will defend ourselves.' The morning after my return from the
city, we were eating a nice breakfast together when gunshots were fired outside
our house. The women shouted in fear, and our children began crying. We
escorted the women and children into safe rooms, and we picked up our
weapons.
"When we looked outside to see who was firing, we were shocked to see so
many men with guns. We fired back at them with our own weapons until, in this
exchange of gunfire, we saw Nazaneen's father fall down and lie unmoving.
Instantly, the barrage of shooting stopped, and my beloved's uncle and some of
the other men ran forward and dragged his body away. Then I told my father,
'I'm afraid I am the one who shot her father. What if he dies?' He answered,
'Son, don't worry. We did it to defend our home, our family, and our lives.'
After the gun battle, Nazaneen's evil-minded uncle hid his wounded brother to
recuperate. He told my lover and everyone else the lie that her father had died
at my hand. Luckily, one of my friends, whose name is Asim, heard rumors of
the real story. Nazaneen Bakhtawar does not realize that her father is still alive,
and so I have become the most hated person in her life. She even joined her

5. family in accusing me of murder. The day after the attack on our house, the
police came and took me away to prison. My lord, I have killed no one, yet I
have been sitting in this cell, accused of murder, for nearly eight weeks.’’
With that, Noman stepped down from the witness box, and Asim was sworn in
as the next witness.
Asim testified, "Your honor, Noman is an innocent man. Ever since I learned
that the young woman's father may not really be dead, I looked for a way to
prove it. I knew the funeral must have been a sham, so I watched the man's
family for year after year until finally I discovered that the father has been
hiding in the basement of Saddam's farmhouse all this time. If you send the
police there now, they will find him."
The judge instructed everyone in the courtroom not to touch their phones. All
spectators at the trial were asked to put their hands onto the setback in front of
them so constables could make sure no warning was given. A call went out to
the local police station for officers to proceed in force to the village in order to
raid Saddam's farmhouse. Within an hour, a report came back that the "dead
man" was indeed alive.
The judge immediately freed Noman and ordered the arrest of Saddam and of
Nazaneen's uncle for perjured testimony. It was too late, so long after the fact,
to prove it was the uncle who ambushed Noman and stabbed him. Noman
walked out of the court room, a free man. Outside, he found his lover standing
before him with tears falling from her guilt-stricken eyes. Regret was evident in
her expression, but Noman smiled lovingly at her, and the two lovers rushed
together in relief.
After her father's liberation from the basement, it was ascertained that he had
not been told of his supposed death. Instead, Saddam lied to him and said he
must remain hidden in the basement to preserve his life against attempts by
Noman's family to exact revenge. Although Nazaneen's father became
permanently crippled from the gunshot wound that Noman had dealt him , the
older man completely forgave this injury, even apologizing that he had ever
believed his brother and Saddam when they made their wicked accusations.
Noman and Nazaneen were married with their parents' blessings a month after
the trial. They moved to the capital city where she completed her college
education and received her degree.

6. family in accusing me of murder. The day after the attack on our house, the
police came and took me away to prison. My lord, I have killed no one, yet I
have been sitting in this cell, accused of murder, for nearly eight weeks.’’
With that, Noman stepped down from the witness box, and Asim was sworn in
as the next witness.
Asim testified, "Your honor, Noman is an innocent man. Ever since I learned
that the young woman's father may not really be dead, I looked for a way to
prove it. I knew the funeral must have been a sham, so I watched the man's
family for year after year until finally I discovered that the father has been
hiding in the basement of Saddam's farmhouse all this time. If you send the
police there now, they will find him."
The judge instructed everyone in the courtroom not to touch their phones. All
spectators at the trial were asked to put their hands onto the setback in front of
them so constables could make sure no warning was given. A call went out to
the local police station for officers to proceed in force to the village in order to
raid Saddam's farmhouse. Within an hour, a report came back that the "dead
man" was indeed alive.
The judge immediately freed Noman and ordered the arrest of Saddam and of
Nazaneen's uncle for perjured testimony. It was too late, so long after the fact,
to prove it was the uncle who ambushed Noman and stabbed him. Noman
walked out of the court room, a free man. Outside, he found his lover standing
before him with tears falling from her guilt-stricken eyes. Regret was evident in
her expression, but Noman smiled lovingly at her, and the two lovers rushed
together in relief.
After her father's liberation from the basement, it was ascertained that he had
not been told of his supposed death. Instead, Saddam lied to him and said he
must remain hidden in the basement to preserve his life against attempts by
Noman's family to exact revenge. Although Nazaneen's father became
permanently crippled from the gunshot wound that Noman had dealt him , the
older man completely forgave this injury, even apologizing that he had ever
believed his brother and Saddam when they made their wicked accusations.
Noman and Nazaneen were married with their parents' blessings a month after
the trial. They moved to the capital city where she completed her college
education and received her degree.