Suhaila set off for Delhi from her village, Thadikad, in Kollam on Friday with little hope. The purpose of her trip was ambitious: a meeting with the visiting Saudi king. She wanted to plead with him to grant a pardon to her husband Abdul Lateef Naushad now in jail in Saudi Arabia facing the prospect of losing one of his eyes.Naushad, a migrant worker in the Saudi Kingdom, had got into a fight with the Saudi citizen, who had lost one of eyes in the incident. Under Shariat laws, it was ordered that Naushad too would have an eye gouged out. However, even before Suhaila—who reached Delhi on Sunday evening—could meet Saudi King Abdullah, the purpose of her journey seemed to have been accomplished. The man who had lost his eye and refused to pardon Naushad had decided to forgive and forget. ‘‘That is what I hear,’’ she said, not ready to believe the reports yet.‘‘I would do anything to save my husband. If he is not saved we will be ruined,’’ says the 25-year-old mother of two. Holding tight to daughter Asna, whom her husband has never seen, she says, ‘‘We are poor and have been dependent on Naushad’s earnings.’’ Her husband used to send her Rs 5,000 every month. ‘‘Since April 2003, when he was arrested, we have been depending on money given by his friends out of pity,’’ she says.‘‘I want to meet the King and plead with him to let my husband go free. I have been praying hard all these years,’’ says Suhaila. Under Shariat laws, only the king can grant clemency if the victim of a crime in unwilling to forgive a sentenced person.Kollam MP Chengara Surendran who organised Suhaila’s effort to save her husband, says that the chances of her meeting the Saudi royal was dim, but he had arranged a meeting with Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmed.He informed that Suhaila’s uncle Haneefa had called from Saudi Arabia to say that the victim had decided to forgive him. But we have no official confirmation yet, he added.‘‘We came to know in the afternoon today that Naif had decided to pardon my husband. Our relatives and friends in Saudi Arabia have been trying to persuade him to pardon my husband all these years,’’ says Suhaila.
