Meeting with Faisal

Sultana Noon meets a new client in Pakistan.

The first time I met with Faisal, we talked for almost two hours. He sat inside his cell and talked to me through the bar door.

I expected him to ask me a lot of questions to verify my identity as clients who have been let down by the law have no reason to trust anyone who claims to be working in their best interests. I thought that building a relationship of trust would probably take a few visits until he realises that I drive for four hours to meet with him, then wait for a couple of hours at the jail for the guards to take me to his cell and then drive back home for another four hours.

To my pleasant surprise, Faisal opened up to me during our very first meeting. In fact, it was more of a one-way conversation as Faisal simply poured his heart out. When the guards who were waiting on me finally got tired and told me it was time for me to leave, Faisal thanked me for visiting him and said “This is the first time in my life that somebody has actually listened to me”.

His words filled me with a sense of responsibility and made me realise how important the work is that I am doing in Pakistan.

Faisal is one example of the thousands of prisoners on death row who consider themselves lucky if their lawyers have the time to visit them. Many don’t even get family visits because their families are so ashamed of knowing someone in prison that they simply disown them.

Like death row anywhere else in the world, here the prisoners are either forgotten or hated and judged by society as the worst of the worst. My task is to ensure that this changes by raising awareness and assisting clients with their cases in the best possible way.