Pakistani convicted murderer takes top school score, wins scholarship

Reuters | Karachi

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

A Pakistani inmate serving a life sentence for murder in an overcrowded Karachi prison has won a scholarship for further study after taking one of the highest scores in the city’s higher secondary school exams last year.

Syed Naeem Shah, 35, scored the highest in the general high school exams among private candidates - that is, among non-traditional students - last year in Pakistan’s largest city, winning a scholarship for further studies from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Pakistan (ICAP).

“What I have achieved while languishing in jail is not possible if one does not have conviction,” Shah told Reuters in an interview in Central Prison Karachi, built by the British in 1899 in the port city in southeastern Pakistan.

Speaking in a classroom inside the prison grounds, Shah said he enjoyed school as a child but that his family could not afford to continue his education.

In jail, older inmates who were also taking classes motivated him and helped him prepare for exams. Shah is one of 1,200 inmates studying in Central Prison Karachi, but his success is unparalleled, said Saeed Soomro, deputy superintendent of the prison.

“His results are (also) tantamount to our success,” Soomro said, in giving him the opportunity to study and providing him with books and materials.

Shah was sentenced to life - 25 years in Pakistan - in 2018 for the shooting and killing of another man in a personal disagreement in 2010.

Years spent as a prisoner on trial, plus time off for academic achievements, good behaviour and blood donations, leaves him with about six years to serve.