KARACHI: Sabika Aziz Shaikh, the Pakistani victim of the Texas school shooting, wanted to join the Foreign Service of Pakistan and improve the image of her country.
This was revealed by her father, Abdul Aziz Shaikh, during an interview with Arab News on Sunday. The 17-year-old Pakistani foreign exchange student, participating in the Kennedy-Lugar Youth Exchange and Study (YES) program in the US, was killed along with nine others when a teenage classmate opened fire on fellow students in the Santa Fe High School in Texas on Friday.
When the tragic news reached Sabika’s hometown, her friends, relatives and other people started pouring in to her residence in Gulshan-e-Iqbal, Karachi in order to mourn her death and condole with the bereaved family.
Sabika’s father said that most children dream of becoming doctors or engineers. “Sabika wanted to sit the Central Superior Services (CSS) exams and join the Foreign Service of Pakistan. She thought that Pakistan was a great country, but that it had an image problem.”
“At one point, she told me that she wanted to be like Maleeha Lodhi and Tasneem Aslam,” said Abdul Aziz Shaikh. “Her desire was to improve the image of Pakistan abroad.”
“She was not very studious and did not study for long hours but she was extremely intelligent. She liked to hang out with friends and family and was full of life,” Abdul Aziz Shaikh said.
He recalled the day he took his daughter to a local hospital for a blood test, saying she did not like needles and resisted the idea of being pricked in her arm.
“When I told her that her unwillingness would make it difficult for her to fulfill her dream of studying in the US, she gave in. But she cried while they were taking her blood,” he said in a state of grief, adding: “She was so scared of needles. It’s hard for me to imagine what she must have thought on hearing gunshots that fateful day.”
“Was she crying at that moment, taking my name or thinking of her mother? I haven't been able to get these thoughts out of my mind ever since hearing the news of her death,” Abdul Aziz Shaikh said in a feeble voice.
“Daughters are usually closer to their fathers. but Sabika was also the darling of her mother. She had close attachments to everyone. And my youngest daughter, Soha, has lost her best buddy,” he said.
Soha recalled her last conversation with Sabika as she spoke to Arab News. On Thursday, her sister had said that she would be back in Pakistan after 19 days. “She told me that she had bought gifts for us, asking me if I wanted anything specific from the US,” said Soha.
She was fond of Pakistani cuisine. “She told me that she wanted to have Bismillah Biryani – from our old neighborhood of Shah Faisal – when she came back to the country,” Soha said.
“She was fasting when she was shot,” Abdul Aziz Shaikh continued. “She wanted to fast for the whole month.”
Ali Aziz, Sabika’s brother, told Arab News that she “was among the 75 students who got selected for the exchange program out of five thousand applicants.”
“She made us proud and didn’t put any financial burden on her family since winning the prestigious scholarship. She was very excited and happy when she left for the US. She left her O Level incomplete and was planning to continue it on her return,” Abdul Aziz Shaikh said.
Talking to the media outside Sabika’s residence in Karachi, Shehla Shamim, principal of the Karachi Public School, said that Sabika was a position holder.
“She was not just a student but a representative of Pakistan. She was proud of going to the US and told me that she wanted to carry Pakistani culture to that country with her,” she said.
Her father told Arab News that Sabika’s body had been handed over to the Muslim community and would be sent to Pakistan soon.
“We will offer her funeral prayer on Tuesday morning,” he said.
Sabika wanted to improve Pakistan's image abroad, says her father
Sabika wanted to improve Pakistan's image abroad, says her father
- Seventeen-year-old Pakistani girl wanted to be a diplomat and improve her country’s image abroad.
- Her father says she wanted to be like Tasneem Aslam and Maleeha Lodhi.
Bill Clinton says he ‘did nothing wrong’ with Epstein as he faces grilling over their relationship
- “I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” the former Democratic president said
- The closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, marks the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress
WASHINGTON: Former President Bill Clinton told members of Congress on Friday that he “did nothing wrong” in his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and saw no signs of Epstein’s sexual abuse as he faced hours of grilling from lawmakers over his connections to the disgraced financier from more than two decades ago.
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” the former Democratic president said in an opening statement he shared on social media at the outset of the deposition.
The closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, marks the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress. It came a day after Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sat with lawmakers for her own deposition.
Bill Clinton has also not been accused of any wrongdoing. Yet lawmakers are grappling with what accountability in the United States looks like at a time when men around the world have been toppled from their high-powered posts for maintaining their connections with Epstein after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to state charges in Florida for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.
“Men — and women for that matter — of great power and great wealth from all across the world have been able to get away with a lot of heinous crimes and they haven’t been held accountable and they have not even had to answer questions,” said Republican Rep. James Comer, the chair of the House Oversight Committee, before the deposition began Friday.
Hillary Clinton told lawmakers Thursday that she had no knowledge of how Epstein had sexually abused underage girls and had no recollection of even meeting him. But Bill Clinton will have to answer questions on a well-documented relationship with Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, even if it was from the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Bill Clinton in his opening statement said that he would likely often tell the committee that he did not recall the specifics of events from more than 20 years ago. But he also expressed certainty that he had not witnessed signs of Epstein’s abuse.
During a break after two hours of questioning, Democratic lawmakers said that Bill Clinton had tried to answer every question and had not invoked his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.
Still, Republicans were relishing the opportunity to scrutinize the former Democratic president under oath.
“No one’s accusing anyone of any wrongdoing, but I think the American people have a lot of questions,” Comer said.
Republicans finally get a chance to question Bill Clinton
Republicans have wanted to question Bill Clinton about Epstein for years, especially as conspiracy theories arose following Epstein’s 2019 suicide in a New York jail cell while he faced sex trafficking charges.
Those calls reached a fever pitch late last year when several photos of the former president surfaced in the Department of Justice’s first release of case files on Epstein and Maxwell, a British socialite who was convicted of sex trafficking in December 2021 but maintains she’s innocent. Bill Clinton was photographed on a plane seated alongside a woman, whose face is redacted, with his arm around her. Another photo showed Clinton and Maxwell in a pool with another person whose face was redacted.
Epstein also visited the White House several times during Clinton’s presidency, and the pair later made several international trips together for their humanitarian work. Comer claimed the committee has collected evidence that Epstein visited the White House 17 times and that Bill Clinton flew on Epstein’s airplane 27 times.
Democratic lawmakers said they also posed tough questions to Bill Clinton about his relationship with Epstein and Maxwell.
“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long,” Bill Clinton said in his opening statement. “And by the time it came to light with his 2008 guilty plea, I had long stopped associating with him.”
Comer pledged extensive questioning of the former president. He claimed that Hillary Clinton had repeatedly deferred questions about Epstein to her husband.
Bill Clinton went after Comer for calling his wife before the committee, telling him that “including her was simply not right.”
The committee was working to quickly publish a transcript and video recording of her deposition.
Has a precedent been set?
Democrats, who have supported the push to get answers from Bill Clinton, are arguing that it sets a precedent that should also apply to President Donald Trump, a Republican who had his own relationship with Epstein.
“I think that President Trump needs to man up, get in front of this committee and answer the questions and stop calling this investigation a hoax,” said Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, on Friday.
Comer has pushed back on that idea, saying that Trump has answered questions on Epstein from the press.
Trump on Friday expressed remorse at Bill Clinton being forced to testify. “I like Bill Clinton, and I don’t like seeing him deposed,” he told reporters as he departed the White House en route to Corpus Christi, Texas.
Democrats are also calling for the resignation of Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Lutnick was a longtime neighbor of Epstein in New York City but said on a podcast that he severed ties with Epstein following a 2005 tour of Epstein’s home that disturbed Lutnick and his wife.
The public release of case files showed that Lutnick actually had two engagements with Epstein years later. He attended a 2011 event at Epstein’s home, and in 2012 his family had lunch with Epstein on his private island.
“He should be removed from office and at a minimum should come before the committee,” Garcia said of Lutnick.
Republican Rep. Nancy Mace questioned Hillary Clinton about Lutnick’s relationship to Epstein during the deposition on Thursday. On Friday morning, Mace joined in calling for the commerce secretary to come before the committee.
“I believe we will have the votes to subpoena him,” Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna said.
