John R. Houk
© November 29, 2012
Whew! Ouch!
Ms. Aleem has given me a good old fashioned scolding for posting Shamim Masih’s bad opinion of Hector Aleem and his family. Ms Aleem posted her displeasure on my Facebook Timeline. I note this because Ms. Aleem in restrained anger ordered me not to post this on my blog. Since my Facebook page is a public page I feel impelled to post her response to Shamim Masih calling the Aleems a family of lying frauds.
I have to say that even though the tone of Ms. Aleem’s response filled with righteous indignation and anger, she comported herself as a good lady and refrained from profanity and presented her refutation in the most detail I have ever received from her or have read on the Facebook Group – Free Hector Aleem.
Ms. Aleem’s Facebook post on my Timeline claims she has never withheld anything from me. Unfortunately that is not true. Her Free Hector Aleem posts initially were only about Hector Aleem being charged with breaking the Blasphemy Law in Pakistan. Even Shamim Masih reports that the Blasphemy charge was unjust and indeed after the slow machine of Pakistani justice moved at a snail’s pace Hector was exonerated of the Blasphemy charge.
When I say “snail’s pace” I mean a few years in a Pakistan jail in which he was mistreated and felt the threat of Muslim mobs intimidating Pakistan Judges. I still believe that harrowing experience Hector endured while awaiting exoneration.
I expected Hector to be released from jail after his exoneration. He was not. When I began to openly wonder about that on my blogs that Mehwish Aleem had been reading the only posts on Free Hector Aleem was that Hector faced insignificant technicalities that kept in jail (The words “insignificant technicalities” are my paraphrase because I cannot remember the exact words Mehwish Aleem posted). Ms. Aleem never wrote about those insignificant technicalities. And yet I continued to support Hector’s cause, believing the insignificant technicalities would be wrapped up shortly. They were not.
That is when I stumbled up a Shamim Masih article (Shamim did not initiate any emails, I did that). Shamim gave great detail of those “insignificant technicalities”. The reality is those technicalities were not so insignificant but are charges in defrauding Christians.
Mehwish defends the charges by stating these Christians were of poor stalk in the first place and were ejected from the land connected to the Church building issue that Mehwish in the past uses as the reason for the trumped up Blasphemy charge. When Muslim mobs ransacked that Church and Hector was tossed in the clink these poor Christians returned to being homeless with a government official moving them to essentially a refugee camp living in tents. Mehwish Aleems says on my Facebook Timeline that this refugee camp is government land and that the low caste poor Christians will eventually face expulsion again and then someone else will be the bad guy to them and Hector will be off the hook as the poor Christians’ villain-in-chief.
At this point let’s do a refresher moment of Shamim Masih’s investigative findings:
According to Basharat Khokher, Hector Aleem was running an organization with the name “peace worldwide” and produced good repute worldwide on the name of helping the poor Christians in Pakistan but the facts behind this were bitter to chew”. He has been involved in many unethical activities which brought him to this stage now.
In 2008, he was involved in the land mafia group and grabbed the piece of land in Rawal Town, Islamabad unlawfully and taking money from the poor Christians he made them to sit on piece of land, which he did not own or bought for them but of government’s land. He made a church there unlawfully to have sympathy of the world with him. He called many Christians families from different cities of the country to Islamabad. Poor Christians far from different villages came there and become the pray of his ensnare. He took Rs.3500/ from 1000 families on the name of registration for the land and thus collected Rs. 35, 00,000/- from the poor Christians.
Mehwish Aleem castigates Basharat Khokher as a nefarious person that converted to Islam from Christianity. Shamim does not mention this detail about Basharat; however Shamim played a huge part in protecting Rimsha Masih (Khokher’s heroic part can be read HERE and HERE), the 14 year old girl Christian framed for burning Quran pages breaking the Pakistan Blasphemy Law. I’ll let the readers decide if Khokher convert to Islam from Christianity. As a Muslim protecting Rimsha it would seem to me the typically violent Muslim mobs would have physically assaulted Khokher, wife and children for giving aid to a Christian and by extension a Christian family.
Moving on with Shamim’s finding on Hector Aleem:
On August 09, 2008 a delegation from the government include Mumtaz Alam Gillanin (Minister Human Rights), joint secretary Khalid Amin and Farid Khan (secretary), Khush Dil khan (Deputy Secretary) came to him on the piece of the land he was holding unlawfully to negotiate and to provide the alternate land for the poor Christian families.
But the stubborn Hector Aleem didn’t listen to them; he went to Prime Minister of Pakistan at that time Mr. Yousaf Raza Gillani who showed his sympathy towards poor Christians and made a committee to investigate the issues raised by him intentionally.
Meanwhile Hector took passports from few Christians include Bashaarat Khokhar working for him promising them to visa stamp for abroad.
A committee includes Dr. Moen Masood (SSP) Ishaq Warraich (DSP) and few other officials went to investigation and found him guilty.
Chief Minister Punjab took action against them in November 2008 and police arrested Christians involved in it including, Basharat Khokher, David Akmal, Arif, Qazi Asharaf, Hanok Bhatti and Hector Aleem.
Hector Aleem than planned a false story involving his Muslim friends to file an FIR against him of a blasphemy case, in which he took Basharat Khokher with him.
“I have been falsely implicated in a blasphemy case. I am a human rights activist. How could I hurt feelings of Muslim brothers? I never used SMS for any kind of purpose,” Hector Aleem told the CLAAS fact-finding team.
And then he intentionally knotted his so called spokesman Basharat Khokher saying he has been using my cell phone and he may have done this.
Part of Shamim’s investigation led him the respected Christian Human Rights organization Centre for Legal Aid, Assistance and Settlement (CLAAS). Mehwish Aleem never mentions CLAAS but rather extols the fairly unknown organization founded by Hector Aleem Peace Worldwide (Not to be confused the Peace Worldwide Organization located in the USA).
Mehwish Aleem asks me why I trust Shamim photo and investigative evidence and not that which she has provided. I completely trust Ms. Aleem’s evidence pertaining to her father when it comes to being framed for Blasphemy. It is the other charges I am a bit sketchy on the truth.
Ms. Aleem finishes the very sincere sounding scolding with an - I didn’t ask for your help and you cheap skate you only donated ten bucks which I will return to you some day because I don’t want anything from you (Yes, it’s a rather loose paraphrase).
The thing is Shamim Masih’s credibility is high in my estimation because of the journalism that other news have picked up from him and Shamim’s promotion of other Christian Human Rights people in Pakistan that the Facebook Group never mentions in its perpetual asking of donations for unexplained legal fees. Mehwish Aleem claims she owes no explain to me or anyone else, yet operating a Pakistan Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) does deserve explanations of where their finances go.
I just had a thought. I have never checked to see if Hector Aleem’s Peace Worldwide is a registered NGO. Maybe someone can check into that and see how legit Peace Worldwide is. After all a registered NGO would definitely have some public record, especially in a Muslim nation such as Pakistan.
Ms. Aleem throws dispersions on Shamim Masih’s legitimacy which is only natural for certainly Shamim findings are not exactly a gleaming light of approval for the Aleems. One thing that might help you decide on whom to believe is to read some of the posts on Free Hector Aleem and some of the articles by journalist Shamim Aleem. I have posted some of the emails from Shamim Masih of which some are obviously articles that were posted elsewhere. I posted a group of those emails at SlantRight 2.0 which you can read HERE. Here is an article about Christian Human Rights activist Romana Bashir. Shamim Masih is listed on the staff page (scroll down to find it) Salem-News.com located in Salem, Oregon, USA. Here is a succinct profile of Salem-News.com from its Linked in page.
Shamim is associated with Christian Human Rights activism and Christian News Services:
§ British Pakistan Christian Association (BPCA) – Article on Shamim’s involvement with children, Christmas at Mardan Church
If I looked a little harder I would probably find more associations that involve Shamim Masih and Christianity. My point is that Shamim has credible credentials as a published journalist relating to his home nation of Pakistan.
If you visit Mehwish Aleem’s post on my Facebook Timeline you will notice that I tried to do a little editing without changing the original meaning for a little easier reading. If Ms. Aleem reads my editing and feels I changed any intent of her meaning I humbly apologize.
JRH 11/29/12
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November 25, 2012
My dear brother John,
Once a great supporter of my dad and now a hater, greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
First of all I am surprised to hear the news that you have stopped supporting our dad Hector Aleem by calling him a fraud and I also came to know that you were investigating on the matter but didn’t even once consulted me, like you did when you received comments about my character.
Anyways I am here to tell you something about the case and the facts on which you were convinced to stop supporting us. I would never ever convince you to start supporting us again, but do you know how this Shamim guy appeared on the scene? A sister, I would mention her name after asking her, contacted him and told him that he should help us but what he said to her? He said I cannot help them coz they are fraud but I want to escape from Pakistan. How? Why?
Why all of a sudden he was in danger? And when she stopped contacting him he contacted you and told you every fake detail about my dad’s case i.e. he said that the he was arrested in November 2008, BUT he received a PEACE award in December 2008. Isn’t it strange???
Let me tell you that before he received the Peace Award by the Government of Pakistan in 2008, the PM and the authorities who were responsible to award my father THE PEACE AWARD received same kind of mails and messages you received now or have received before.
Like this Shamim guy said, daddy involved himself in the blasphemy case to go abroad. FYI my daddy used to go to USA, UK, Germany, South Africa and other countries thrice a year and sometimes four times a year. Plus his visits were for a week or four days. And once when Peace Worldwide School was attacked by extremists we – the whole family - were offered an asylum in Canada but my father refused. So I dare this guy to ONCE, just ONCE only, to set an example that really shows my father did this for an asylum ... involve himself in any blasphemy case. He might have so many Muslim friends that he can do this. And when he will get an asylum, he can rest his case. Isn’t it an easy job? I dare him to do it.
Then he said Khushdil Khan, Khalid Amin and Fareed Khan tried to stop him. Another FYI, they were deputy, assistant deputy and secretary in the Human Rights Ministry. They are still friends of daddy, there are pictures of them in Peace Worldwide page with daddy and they were the first who wrote letters against daddy’s arrest. I can still show you all those pictures. They were never against daddy. Now about the pictures he took, do you really know that they are the real people who claim that my father took their money? Was my father THAT low class? He is a retired Air Force Officer; my mom was a registered Head Nurse in one of the most expensive hospitals of Islamabad. I was doing a job and my sister too.
Do you still think that we wanted other people’s money? We used to live in a luxurious condition and house that you can only imagine while living in the USA. It’s only these circumstances we faced after the case is the reason why we are forced to ask for his lawyer’s fee.
Now back to the pictures: if you don’t believe in our pictures then how can you believe in Shamim’s pictures? He may be a fraud like he said that we are.
Now about the people he was talking about, to whom he claims that my father took money for plots: it was only about the Church not any plot. They were only sitting there for the protection of the Church because when daddy got arrested, the Church was completely destroyed and all people were kicked out. Now as he said they are sitting in a graveyard and they named the colony Akram Masih Gill colony because Mr. Akram Masih Gill gave them that place to live. Now as that graveyard is a government property, one day the government will surely kick them out of that place, then what will happen? They will curse Akram same as they are cursing daddy. It happens people are so ungrateful and every Pakistani leader has faced this situation, especially Christian leaders and those who have not faced any criticism at anytime, isn’t a leader.
Let’s take an example of Shahbaz Bhatti: when he was alive everybody talked against him and said he is against Christians and Christianity, but when he died he suddenly became a hero. This is the nature of people here. They will curse you, call your names, but when you die they will make you their hero.
In Pakistan there is a rule, it’s a law actually that when a person is in custody, no other case can be registered against him BUT you will see that all these corruption cases Shamim is talking about have been registered against daddy after his arrest. Was he doing these frauds and corruption from inside the jail? Haven’t I told you each and every bit of the case? Didn’t I ever mention that these are the fraud cases? I have never hidden anything from you guys.
And he said there is no lawyer who charges this much of a fee. FYI our lawyer is a senior lawyer of Supreme Court and an ex-president of Supreme Court Bar Association. He even charges for suggestions he gives to his clients, yes, there are lawyers who charge a much lower fee, but they will ruin our case. BTW would you tell me what have I done? You saw a guy character assassinate me. Did I do fraud too or maybe I’m getting a punishment of favoring my dad?
In the end, you once called me pro-Pakistani. Now this guy says we are mixed in with Muslims. Let me tell you one thing, you are living in a Christian country not we. You can survive without talking to non-Christians but we cannot because every person here is a Muslim. What do you think? He has never made ANY Muslim friend? He might have MANY Muslim friends. Mixing up in Muslims and changing your faith are two different things. In the end he said that faces like ours are not the faces of victims, victims are like Basharat and other people. Again FYI Basharat was daddy’s bodyguard this is why he was involved in the case because he was the second person they were suspecting after daddy, BUT another thing I want to mention here is that he has converted to Islam from Christianity. IF he will ever be persecuted, it will not be because of the Christian faith but for his Muslim faith and BTW this was the reason daddy kicked him out of his job.
In the end, I would like to say that I am a proud daughter of my dad, I don’t need to explain anything to you, neither do I want you to post this or that in our favor. I personally believe that it’s not what you believe but it’s what you WANT to believe. THERE IS A GOD, and I am only bound to explain to HIM anything and not to you or any other person.
I have never asked you to help us. You yourself came and started to help, I am of the view that everybody has his own role in another’s life and my dear friend I think your role has finished here. You may kick me out of your friends list because I am assuming now that you have always hated me because of my pro-Pakistani posts. It was never for me to explain to you anything. It was about telling you that you have no right to judge my dad. He may be a far much better Christian than you OR your new friend. You will only come to know about this when you will ever get into situation like this and you will have to explain your innocence.
Stay cool and stay calm I never wanted and still don’t want your help and this mail is not for your blog. As I have promised to every donor, I promise you, whatever amount you donated for daddy (as far as I remember it was $10 but you can tell me if you donated more), I will return it to you and to others. As soon as we get better, as soon as we return to our normal situation, I will return you your donation.
Also, we are not cowards like Shamim or Basharat or others who would leave Pakistan, we will stay there and we will work for Christians from here and we really don’t care if someone kills us or whatever because we are brave. We only fear God.
ONLY GOD CAN JUDGE ME, MY FATHER AND MY FAMILY
Regards
[Ms. Mehwish Aleem]
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Free Hector Aleem Administrator Displeased with Me
John R. Houk
© November 29, 2012
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Once a great supporter of my dad and now a hater
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