COVERSTORY
hout Fences
Living Wit
In Sentosa Cove
Her home, a beautiful three-storey
bungalow that has received a lot of
attention in international publications,
boasts a much sought-after postal
code – 098098. That’s the number
you need to write on the front of the
envelope if you want to mail a letter
to the denizens of Sentosa Cove, quite
possibly one of the most desirable
addresses in the world.
Sara Taseer’s home in
Sentosa Cove has no
fences, a decision she
made because of the trust
she has in Singapore.
Discover more about
this luxury jeweller, her
unique family philosophy
and her storied past.
Yet, Sara Taseer, 43, and her husband,
financier Salman Shoaib, chose to
not ring their abode with a security
fence. In fact, as Sara was sitting on
her plush couch and sharing her story
with us, a golfer was rummaging in
the shrubbery looking for an errant
golf ball, some ten metres away from
where we were seated. We were
separated only by a glass door.
Does it not bother you?
“No, it doesn’t. It’s actually one of the
reasons why I love Singapore – the
safety. The country is one of the few
places in the world that allows us to
live without fences and boundaries,
which adds to the quality of life and our
peace of mind.”
Sara has every reason to put her
family’s safety as her one of her top
considerations when deciding where
to live. Her father Salmaan Taseer was
a prominent and outspoken Pakistani
By Farhan Shah
businessman and politician who had
been viciously gunned down in 2011
by one of his bodyguards. The reason:
the assassin disagreed with Salmaan’s
vocal opposition to Pakistan’s
blasphemy law.
And just seven months later, the
Taseer family was rocked again by
another tragedy. Sara’s brother,
Shahbaz, was kidnapped by unknown
abductors. According to Pakistani
police, a group of armed men forcibly
commandeered Shahbaz’s vehicle at a
busy traffic intersection and took him
away. Two years later, Shahbaz is still
in their hands.*
Sara admits that those were really
dark days, which left her emotionally
and mentally shattered. “No one has
any action plans when something
terrible like this happens; I just had to
learn to cope with it,” says Sara.
The permanent resident and mother of
three would set emotional milestones
for herself. Every week, she would ask
herself how she felt and if she was
feeling better than she did the previous
week, she knew she was recovering.
There were multiple setbacks during
her personal journey but slowly, she
began to feel better and more alive
again. The excellent support provided
by her husband and children also
helped immensely and now, Sara feels
strong enough to re-start her annual
pilgrimages to Pakistan, which she
had stopped for close to two years, to
visit her family. “The children and I go
at least two to three times a year and
while we’re there, we take precautions.
I still love Pakistan after all,” says
Sara, smiling.
Indeed, Pakistan was where Sara
made a name for herself. She
was the country’s first female
brokerage house owner to work in
the stock exchange, a significant
achievement back then when one
considers Pakistan’s non-existent
women’s rights. Her workplace was
also where she first met her future
husband, Salman. They were first
introduced to each other in 1996,
and after interacting regularly at
corporate events, the both of them
decided to take their relationship to
the next level.
In 1997, after dating for a year, Sara
and Salman reached a crossroads.
Salman had accepted a job offer
from Credit Suisse in Hong Kong
and the both of them had to decide
how they wanted to bring the
relationship forward.
Their conundrum was solved when
Salman proposed and soon, the both
of them embarked on their nomadic
global lifestyle, largely influenced
by Salman’s burgeoning banking
career. The lovebirds stayed in Hong
If we don’t
make a
concerted
effort to spend
time with the
children…
then, before
you know it,
our children
have become
adults and we
would wonder
what happened
during their
growing years.
8
Family & Life • Dec 2013/Jan 2014