LONDON: Shumaila Imran Farooq, a former member of the Sindh Assembly and the widow of slain Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) leader Dr Imran Farooq, has passed away in London after battling a form of cancer and several other health complications.
She had been unwell, with her health deteriorating significantly following the assassination of her husband in 2010 outside their Edgware home, a few minutes from MQM’s international office.
Geo and The News highlighted her case – and her quest for justice – in the last 15 years as she battled several illnesses and almost lost full control of her life and her situation. Tragically, she was abandoned by both MQMs – London and Pakistan. This reporter did several exclusive and investigative stories on her, detailing how she was living in extreme poverty, had been abandoned, was lonely and suffering, and unable to move on from her husband’s killing, especially in absence of any support.
Her death brings renewed attention to a case that has remained unresolved for more than fifteen years and highlights the long-term personal toll of political violence and exile. Although three people have been jailed in Pakistan for Dr Farooq’s killing but Shumaila Farooq always told this correspondent that there were more people who escaped justice.
Shumaila Farooq was not only known as the spouse of a prominent political leader. She was herself an elected representative, having served as a Member of the Sindh Assembly from MQM.
Nearly three decades ago, she moved to the United Kingdom. Later Dr. Imran Farooq, one of MQM’s founding members and a senior figure in its leadership, left Pakistan after spending much of the 1990s in hiding during operations against the party, and joined her in the UK. Like many political figures of that era, he continued his political engagement from exile. They married on the advice of Altaf Hussain.
In the years following the murder, Shumaila Farooq remained in London, pursuing justice through legal channels while caring for her two sons, Alishan and Wajdaan. The process proved long and exhausting.
Shumaila Imran Farooq will be remembered as a political exile and a widow who endured years of loss and illness while continuing to seek justice.
