The Globe and Mail, Wednesday, February 8, 2006
SONJA PUZIC, SONYA FATAH
TORONTO, PAKISTAN — Nearly $40,000 raised for the family of the Toronto taxi driver killed by a speeding car will be kept in the bank until officials determine whether Tahir Khan had any children and verify the identity of his widow.
More than two weeks after one of the luxury cars police say were racing on the northern edge of downtown struck and crushed Mr. Khan’s cab, suspicions about the existence of his children are fuelling rumours in Toronto’s Pakistani community.
The Toronto Islamic Foundation and Diamond Taxi Association, trustees of donation funds for the 46-year-old immigrant’s relatives, are alarmed and have asked the Pakistani consulate to investigate.
“From Day 1, people have been giving us conflicting stories about how many kids [Mr. Khan] has. Some say two, some say three, some say none,” said Mohammad Alam, president of the Islamic Foundation. “As trustees of the money collected, we want to know what is happening and where that money is going.”
Mr. Alam said the high commissioner in Pakistan told him Mr. Khan had three children, but he has asked for another confirmation, this time on paper, in light of the controversy.
Saleem Irshad, the assistant general manager of Diamond Taxi, said the firm will continue to collect donations but is in “no rush” to send the money to Mr. Khan’s relatives until his questions are answered.
When relatives gathered in the Punjabi village of Jamali Balocha to bury Mr. Khan on Feb. 2, there were contradictory statements.
His widow, Najima Batool, was not available. Her brother, Akbar Khan, said the couple had no children. Several villagers at the funeral agreed. And when the question was put to Tahir Khan’s father, Ansar, he said he didn’t know whether his son had any children.
Shortly after the burial ceremony, the family’s appointed representative, known only as Shabbir, rattled off the names and ages of the three children — Ramla, 13, Sabih, 11, and Fakhir, 4. But he refused to allow members of the news media to meet them.
“They are just children,” he said. “They are very upset by the loss.”
But Mr. Irshad, who spoke to Shabbir on the phone to arrange the return of Mr. Khan’s body to Pakistan, said the man who introduced himself as a long-time family friend never mentioned the couple’s children. Mr. Irshad said Diamond Taxi wired $5,000 for the widow to a National Bank of Pakistan account under Shabbir’s name.
At the South Asian Legal Clinic of Ontario, which provides free representation to low-income members of the South Asian community, project manager Mehreen Raza said she tried many times to reach Mr. Khan’s widow. She spoke to Shabbir but he refused to let her speak with the woman.
“After I insisted,” Ms. Raza said, “he told me, ‘Look, if you really want to speak to her, I can put anyone on the phone and tell you it’s his wife. How would you know it’s his spouse?’ ”
Shoaib Sarwar, the vice-consul of Pakistan in Toronto, said the consulate will clear up the confusion as soon as possible. A three-day Shia religious holiday in the region around Jamali Balocha is slowing the process.
Mr. Khan was three days shy of receiving Canadian citizenship when he died.
Co-workers and friends said he was planning to bring his wife to Canada.
Ontario’s Minister of Citizenship and Immigration, Mike Colle, has called on the federal government to grant Mr. Khan posthumous citizenship so that his wife may come to Canada if she wishes.
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