Even for Karachi that is plagued with violence and daily casualties of all sorts, the collective suicide of a family in the apartment complex known as Lakhani Towers situated in Ahsanabad was shocking to say the least.
Though the family was practically unknown, the fact that a doctor would be so desperate financially that he will resort to collective suicide sent shockwaves throughout the city and indeed the country but the surprising thing is that this extraordinary tragedy in many aspects still remains shrouded in mystery and the officials concerned seem in no hurry to investigate even the minor details that could perhaps shed more light on this and reveal what really led to this Shakespearian tragedy. It is now more than 2 weeks and the report of the chemical analysis that will really determine the cause of death is still awaited.
This very vital action was already delayed as the 13 samples taken were refused by Karachi University lab who refused to entertain without autopsy report. The samples sat at the police station and were resubmitted after a day and report was expected after 21 days as is typical in such cases. This is still awaited and because of its absence no case can be registered so the case will be registered sometime later this week.
Let us look at the details of those who participated in this collective suicide. There is the father, Dr. Umer Hashmat, 45, originally from Punjab who worked at a hospital in Ahsanabad. He was recently diagnosed with cancer and had resigned his position at the hospital where he worked with the stated intention of getting himself treated in Punjab.
One of his colleagues revealed that he was on way home a day before the collective suicide when he was robbed of his money and mobile. Maybe this is what triggered the suicide idea but than how did he convince his wife specially with three little girls in the house.
Not much is known about Mehwish, the 35 year old wife of the doctor, except that she tried to sell the oven in the house and was asking for ten thousand rupees, but there were no buyers but one of the neighbours did give her two thousand rupees as a loan to tide over her present difficulties.
What is most surprising in this whole episode is the fact that the police could not discover the names of two of the three girls. There was Zainab, the eldest aged 13 years whose age was also initially said to be 10 years and than corrected to 13 years.
No name of the second girl and age was quoted as two to four years, and the same exercise repeated as far as the name and age of the third girl was concerned.
I have been wondering how difficult it is to find a name. If the girls went to school their names and exact ages can be determined from their school and than there is good old NADRA that would surely have cooperated with authorities and produced names and ages on request. Alsoa in an apartment complex children of these ages mix with each other and know each other by name. Strange that no one in the entire complex could name the other two girls. The brother of the deceased doctor who had come for the funeral surprised everyone by saying that he did not even know that the doctor had three daughters as they had stopped communicating after the birth of the first one. I must say a little hard to believe because such news travel around, and it is not necessarily the brother himself but some other close relative or friend can inform of such happenings.
There were rumours of a property dispute between the brothers which were later denied but the police could have investigated these rumours as this could have changed the entire focus of investigation. It must still be investigated if there is any property involved as mostly there are properties involved in spoiling relations between close relations or at least it must be revealed what was the reason for such breaking up of a close relationship. Brother of the deceased doctor also ignored a service by Edhi to transport the bodies to Punjab and buried them in Karachi. Obviously they were avoiding the attention of the media in their native towns in case the bodies were taken there for burial.
Whatever the outcome it is obvious that as in other recent cases there were many unanswered questions, and the feeling that the authorities did not come up to expectations. Let us wait and see if the much report can make a difference.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
The writer is a well-known columnist