KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 7 — An opposition party worker has confirmed her intimate connection with Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, The Australian newspaper reported today.
Fatima Pardi, who has three children including one with cerebral palsy, told the newspaper that Zaharie had taken care of them since they met in 2013.
But she denied their relationship was romantic in nature.
“This is not a lovey-dovey story. He was a friend of mine. We were friends. He told me he saw potential in me and that he would help me build a better future for myself and my children.
“Since the incident, I have refused all interviews because I have been afraid that what I say will be misinterpreted, and that it will hurt Captain Zaharie’s family’s feelings,” she was quoted as saying by The Australian.
Acknowledging that their relationship was a source of gossip including rumours that she was his mistress, she insisted that they had been close simply because her children loved him and he loved them back.
Zaharie is married and has three adult children; his family has never commented on this matter publicly before.
Fatima, who works for PKR, added that Zaharie had contacted her two days before the ill-fated flight went missing on March 8, 2014.
But she declined to share what was said in their final encounter.
“I don’t want to talk about it. I’m afraid what I say will be misunderstood. It was a personal matter, a private issue,” she added.
Zaharie’s brother-in-law, Asuad Khan, reportedly said his sister’s marriage had been affected, but acknowledged that the couple had differences.
However, he also dismissed the implications of Zaharie’s relationship with Fatima.
“We’re Muslim, right, so why worry? You can marry four (women), so who cares?” he said adding that the couple “had storms here and there” in their relationship .
Fatima is not Zaharie’s only connection to PKR. The pilot previously attended party meetings and was categorised as a staunch supporter of PKR de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The disappearance of MH370 a day after Anwar was sentenced to prison for sodomy by the Court of Appeal had initially prompted rumours that the two incidents were connected.
The plane with 239 people on board remains missing despite over two years of intensive searching.
The lack of physical evidence from the plane has prevented investigators from determining how it went missing, but possible theories include intervention by those on board.
