A Pilot Study on:

‘Honour Killings’ inPakistan

and Compliance of Law

ByMaliha Zia Lari

Published under

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Legislative Watch Programme forWomen’s Empowerment

Aurat Foundation

About the Author

The author is a High Court Advocate with an LLMin Human Rights from School of Oriental andAfrican Studies (SOAS), University of London. Shehas been working on women's human rights,specifically women's legal rights for the last 8years. She has worked with several NGOs andinternational organisations providing genderanalysis of Pakistani law, drafting of laws andas a trainer. Her work has included severalreports, articles and trainings given on issue ofinternational human rights treaties, includingCEDAW and discrimination against women in law andthe judiciary. Currently she is practising law inthe Sindh High Court at Karachi and continuingher work as a free lance gender and legalconsultant.

All rights reserved

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This publication is provided gratis or sold, subjectto the condition that it shall not, by way of trade orotherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwisecirculated without the publisher’s prior consent inany form of binding or cover other than in which it ispublished and without a similar condition beingimposed on the subsequent publisher.

Preferences to this report and excerpts of the reportcan be reproduced with due acknowledge of thepublication and Aurat Publication and InformationService Foundation (AF).

Published by: Aurat Publication and Information Service FoundationTitle painting by: Aliya MirzaTitle technical design by: Black Box SoundsLayout design by: Shahzad AshrafPrinting by: Crystal PrintersDate of publication: November, 2011

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Table of Contents

Preface 7

Introduction 11

1. The Status of Women in Pakistan

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2. The Zia Effect of Systematic Discrimination against

Women 17

3. “Honour Killings”: their Prevalence and Understanding

the Rationale 21

4. “Honour Killings” and its Relationship with Law

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“Honour Killings” and Pakistani Law31

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 200435

5. Implementation of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2004 41

5.1. Registered Cases of “Honour Killings”41

Methodology42

Limitations and Problems Faced43

Findings of the Research45

Analysis of the FIRs52

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5.2. Reported Cases of “Honour Killings”54

(i) Case Law in Pakistan54

(ii) Analysis of Pakistani Reported Case Law63

6. Perspective of the Community65

Causes of “Honour Killing”66

Awareness about the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2004 68

Role of the Community 70Role of the Police

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7. Conclusion and Main Findings

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8. Recommendations 85

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GlossaryKaro-kari: Sindhi term literally meaning black i.e.disreputable man - disreputable woman (who havebrought disgrace to the family or clan), a ’crime’that allows culturally condoned killing in the name ofhonour of a man or woman charged with an illicitrelationship. In Balochistan the term used is siyah kari. Ghairat: Loosely translated as honour but also refersto a chivalrous adherence to tradition. Jirga: An assembly of male elders, usually tribal, whomake decisions regarding social issues; an informalbody for resolving disputes. The term is Pushto butthe practice exists across Pakistan. Decisions takenby them are known to be anti-women. Panchayat: An assembly of elders of the community,always males, who are called upon to resolve disputes.Qisas and Diyat Ordinance: Law promulgated by theZiaul Haq regime as Sharia law that allowscompoundability of crimes including murder.Purdah: VeilingNa-mehram: All men excepting blood relatives.Izzat: RespectZan, Zar, Zamin: Women, gold, land – commonlyconsidered motives for committing crimes.Tazir: Sentence of imprisonment or death under normallaw.Masoom ud dam: One whose life is sacred or protected.

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Quwwam: Superior; men are quwwam over women asinterpreted in the Quran.Qatl-e-amd: Intentional murder Wali: ‘Protector’ or ‘guardian’ of women in thefamily, the head of the family, patriarch.Zina: Sexual relationship outside marriageFasad-fil-ard: Chaos/disorder on earth or societyBadl-e-sulah: Giving something (often women and girls)as compensation for a crime.Arsh: Compensation for hurt

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Preface

Elimination of all negative and harmful customarypractices, including killings in the name of so-called honour, has been part of AuratFoundation’s mission since its inception. While awoman’s empowerment means her completeindependence in making choices by her free will,it becomes reality only through her totalemancipation from patriarchal hold. Customs andtraditions, the gatekeepers of patriarchy, becomemore violent and brutal in tribal and feudalsocieties where all-male informal mechanisms ofdispute resolution are still intact. Therefore,throughout history, the most widespread crimesagainst women in all regions of the world havebeen committed in the name of customs. What aself-explanatory foot-note of his-story! Even inpresent times, e.g. the crimes against women likefemale infanticide, female genital mutilation andkillings in the name of ‘family honour’ result in‘unimaginably huge and shameful’ loss of women’sbody and soul in several regions of the world.

In Pakistan, ‘honour’ killings are prevalentthroughout the country, though in some areas theincidents of ‘honour’ killings have taken an

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alarmingly high proportion of incidents in recentyears. According to Aurat Foundation’sstatistics, collected for its annual reports onviolence against women, a total of 557 women werekilled in the name of ‘honour’ in Pakistan in2010, whereas 604 women were killed in 2009, and475 women were killed in 2008. Parallel quasijudicial systems like jirgas and panchayats continueto issue verdicts declaring women and men guiltyof ‘karo-kari’ and ‘siah-kari’ punishable througharbitrary killing, by anyone, by any means.Statistics have shown that usually women arekilled after being declared ‘kari’ and men are oftenable or made to escape from the scene of killing.These crimes have brought our country indisrepute and there is evidence that our failureto contain and address this issue has resulted ina spill over of ‘hounor’ killings to a number offoreign countries primarily through Pakistaniimmigrant communities.

In 2004, when after persistent efforts of women’srights organizations and committed activists,along with active women in political parties,some legal amendments were made to Pakistan PenalCode to address the issue of ‘honour’ crimesthrough an act of Parliament, it turned out to be

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a ‘victory’ more shrouded in disappointment thanjoy. Besides jubilant official claims of makingheadway in resolving the issue, the response ofcivil society organizations was straightforward:“the law has no teeth – it will be ineffective”.Since, Shahla Zia from Aurat Foundation was theprime architect of the legislative bill which washanded over to the federal women’s ministry forlegislative action, and she along with somesenior members of the Legislative Watch Group inIslamabad, Tahira Abdullah, Sabira Qureshi,Nasreen Azhar and myself were participants to thenegotiations with the ministry in 2004, it becameclear, as well as painful for us to know thatdespite our protest and reservations, theoriginal bill prepared by Shahla Zia was beingseverely ‘mutilated’ with the final outcome thatits most vital clauses were dropped when it waspassed by the National Assembly.

The bill was passed in December 2004, and becamea law in January 2005. However, as the above-quoted statistics indicate, there was no let-upin the incidents of ‘honour’ killings during thefollowing years. Since, we were aware of thepresence of serious loopholes in the law, it didnot come as a surprise. But, there could have

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been other factors, e.g. what does our case lawsay about ‘honour’ killings’; how were the law orthe relevant provisions in the PPC received bythe police, judiciary and legal community and;what were community perceptions towards theoffence and any legal remedy to it. These werebroad questions. Therefore, it was felt that apilot study was required to analyze groundsituation to ascertain the level of understandingon the new law by different stakeholders and thenature and extent of its compliance. The scope ofthe study was kept narrow so as to have someinitial understanding of the problem and itsrelated dimensions.

This pilot study was conducted by Maliha ZiaLari, who is a practicing lawyer and researcheron human rights and international instrumentswith a strong passion and commitment to women’srights and their empowerment. She conducted thestudy with the assistance of local researchers inthe four selected districts, Sheikh AbdulRazzaque (Naseerbad), Irfan A. Durrani(Nowshera), Naveed Malik (Ghotki) and MumtazMughal (Gujrat). Saima Munir, Rubina Brohi andHaroon Dawood from Aurat Foundation’s officesalso helped her in conduct of the study.

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Maliha has elaborated limitations and challengesfaced during the conduct of the study in the nextpages, which include difficulties in accessinginformation from concerned departments to‘culture of silence’ among local communities tospeak about or report these crimes. Nevertheless,the findings of the study, summed up in the lastchapter, are startling, for instance, “There is littleawareness of the 2004 law on honour killings. The community atlarge either does not know of it, or does not know the specifics ofthe law. But what is far worse is that this ignorance also existswithin the fundamental players of the justice sector, including thepolice, lawyers and even judges.”, and “The police is oftenunwilling to implement the law due to the overwhelming socialacceptance of the act and the influence of power holders. Oftenthey are reluctant to take the case forward, as mostly the cases arecompromised out of court. The police often try to bring about thisnegotiation themselves, as they feel that it is for the benefit of bothparties to avoid the hassle of a court case and settle the matterbefore taking it to court.”

The findings draw attention of law-makers toreform law concerning these crimes as it isproved to be ineffective and counter-productive;and it is earnestly expected that the leaders andofficials sitting at the helm of affairs inlegislatures, governments, law-enforcement

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agencies, as well as, those who hold authority incourtrooms, will see wisdom in several landmarkjudgments pronounced by the Supreme Courtprohibiting ‘honour killings’ and in additionlisten to the last cries for help and justice ofthose who were killed simply because their only‘crime’ was that they were women.

We hope that this report would pave way forfurther in-depth research, may be on a widerscale, to vindicate its findings with moreevidence as has been suggested by the author. Inthe end, I would like to thank all those who gaveinput to the report in providing information andopinion on the issue. I would also like toexpress Aurat Foundation’s gratitude to theNorwegian development assistance which made itpossible to conduct this study.

Naeem MirzaChief Operating OfficerAurat Foundation

Islamabad, 25 November, 2011

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IntroductionThe Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2004, otherwiseknown as the ‘Honour Killings Act’, waspromulgated after the murders of thousands ofinnocent women and girls and years of demands andstruggle from different segments of society for alegislation to provide protection to citizens,especially women and girls; to make illegal andcriminalize all murders committed under the nameof ‘honour’; and to punish the perpetrators,aiders, abettors and supporters of these crimes.

The 2004 Act amended the Pakistan Penal Code(PPC) and the Criminal Procedure Code (CrPC) todefine karo kari (honour killings) as murder withpenal punishments. It has been held up by thegovernment as a show of their commitment toeliminate honour killings and violence againstwomen. 

However, the Act falls short of providing actualprotection to survivors/victims and ensuringpunishment for the perpetrators and supporters ofthis heinous crime. It has been severelycriticized by civil society, including eminentlegal scholars. The amendments mostly deal withthe Qisas and Diyat provisions in the PPC, but

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have left some major lacunas, which have, ineffect, rendered the law useless.

The problems lie not just in the law itself butin its implementation. With the implicit consentof society, the murderers are given protectionand impunity from within the community, whichextends to the police, courts and otherimplementing agents and agencies. Apart from theinherent biases within these bodies, problemsalso lie with the methods of investigations, lackof up-dated machinery and tools etc.

With the Government holding up the 2004 Act as asuccess story of Pakistan, it is essential thatthis ‘success’ should be measured and itsshortcomings and failures also be recognised andaccepted. Hundreds of women continue to be killedevery year across Pakistan with the murderers andperpetrators going scot free. Civil society,including media, legal, NGO personnel and evenIslamic jurists have all spoken out againsthonour crimes and have advocated for a strongstance against it. With the law in place, thisissue should have decreased drastically.Nevertheless, the problem continues to exist.

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It now becomes necessary to go beyond merelyidentifying the gaps in the law and to move on toidentifying different strategies to push theGovernment and government agencies to conductproper investigations into such cases and arrestand prosecute the perpetrators of these horrificcrimes.

This report aims to take a closer look at theactual implementation of the ‘Honour KillingAct’. It focuses on not just the numbers ofhonour killings quoted in the media, but toexamine the actual effect on the ground. Taking asample study from across the nation, it examineshow many cases of honour killings actually getregistered; what are the reactions of theoffenders to the passing of a law specificallydealing with their crime; the language used bythe police; a case analysis of judgments given onhonour killings to evidence whether any socialchange has been created within the judiciaryitself. The report aims to see whether any actualchange has happened in the 5 years since the lawwas passed.

The report first examines the position women holdin Pakistan in order to set the environment inwhich these offences occur, elaborating on the

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patriarchal mindset and values that exist incurrent day Pakistan. It will go on to brieflyreview the impact of the tenure of General Zia-ulHaq in Pakistan and the effects of hisdiscriminatory policies on women. This is vitalas this was the time when discrimination againstwomen was formalised by the State and ‘legal’impunity for men exploiting and violating women’srights and freedoms began.

The report will then go on to examine the conceptof ‘honour’ and ‘honour killings’ in order tounderstand the crime itself. In order to worktowards eliminating it, it is necessary tocomprehend the rationale behind it. From herewill follow an assessment of how the law inPakistan has dealt with honour killings. It willdiscuss how the law operated before 2004 in orderto allow us to analyse its operation after the‘Honour Killing Law’ was promulgated. The nextsection will discuss the findings of the researchconducted. This will study the effects, if any,of the 2004 law. Finally, the report will end bysummarising its findings with recommendations asto how to make the law more effective andmeasures that should be taken to address theincreased number of honour killings.

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Maliha Zia Lari

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1. The Status of Women in Pakistan

Women’s status in Pakistan varies acrossdifferent classes, regions and rural/urbandivide, and is very much based on the differentcultural traditions and values. However, somegeneric statements can be made while keeping inmind that their effects vary according to theabove-mentioned elements.

Women are thought to be subordinate to men. Fromher birth a woman is considered to be a burdenand her ‘assets are calculated in terms of herpower of reproduction and as an object of sexualsatisfaction’1. Women are denied their ownidentity. They are thought of and recognised asmothers, daughters and sisters – never asindividual persons. A woman is looked upon as a‘commodity’ going from one man’s house (herfather’s) to another’s (her husband’s). This‘commodity’ must be protected to ensure it isdelivered in prime form to its recipient. Thisresults in the men in a family restricting thespace of the women in the family. There are1 “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back”, Shaheed and Mumtaz, 1987

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restrictions placed on their mobility, theirbehaviour and their activities to ensure they donot bring shame to the family. This, along withthe concept of purdah (veiling), which issupposedly meant to provide protection andrespectability to women, but in fact is amanipulative tool used for control, results ininternalising amongst women the notion of thefragility and importance of their own behaviourand the insecurity of their status. The conceptof women as holding men’s ‘honour’ is also anextremely relevant element here, but this will bediscussed later in this report. This bias iswidely held – thereby women’s behaviour ismonitored not just by the men in her family butby the whole of society where she is judged forany behaviour thought to be ‘inappropriate’.

Gender is one of the organisational principles inPakistan. Patriarchal values embedded in localtradition and culture, predetermine the socialvalue of gender. A divide has been createdresulting in the sexual division of labour – thewoman in the reproductive and caregiver role inthe house, and the man as the breadwinner. Thishas further resulted in low resource investmentin women as a group by the State and the family.As a consequence of this low resource investment,

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women suffer greatly, whether through low lifeexpectancy, lack of education etc.

Women are generally unaware of not only theirbasic human rights and their legal rights, butalso of the processes, procedures and any of themechanisms they could access and use for theirown benefits. Additionally, although a largenumber of women, especially in rural areas, dowork for e.g. in agriculture and farming, buttheir contribution is not only not recognised,but also they do not get to play any part indecision-making or administration, nor do theyreceive any financial remuneration for theirwork. Other types of work women do includes piecerate, home based work, which too is notrecognised and remains unrecorded as they are notconsidered part of the labour force. The majorityof women do not reap financial benefits fromtheir work because the payment received is notconsidered their ‘own’ and is usually eithertaken by the male member of the family or used tosupport the family. For a large segment of thefemale population there are also restrictions onwomen working outside the house, which directlyaffects the economic independence of women. Theyare entirely dependent on men for any finances,which further infringes on their freedom of

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choice as they feel that without any financialsupport there are no options for them. Thiscoupled with restrictions on women’s mobilityresults in a total dependence on men.

2. The ‘Zia’ Effect of Systematic Discrimination against Women

As discussed above, women’s status in Pakistanisociety is considered as secondary to men. Theyare expected to play the role of nurturer, themother, recognised and valued only for herreproductive capability. These highly patriarchalviews are steeped in the traditional culture ofPakistan. However, these views were given massivesupport and formal support during the presidencyof General Zia ul Haq2. While such views werealways present, they were now perpetuated by theState through its actions, institutions andthrough the law. These policies did not justpropagate and strengthen patriarchal beliefs in

2 Ibid 25

society, but also sent out the message that theywere ‘right’ and it was acceptable to treat womenin such a manner. The impunity granted tosociety’s treatment of women thereafter furtherserved to entrench such notions into the psycheof the people in Pakistan with long lastingeffects seen in different forms, includingviolence against women and the treatment of womenby the legal system. The methods adopted by theState in this State sponsored discrimination ofwomen are discussed a little later.

As noted by Mumtaz and Shaheed3, it was not untilthe last few decades that Pakistani women evenconceived of their struggle as being against apatriarchal system. These women had played a partin demanding greater rights and concessions fromwithin the existing system, believing thatachieving their own rights was a matter of‘natural’ evolutionary process. Until theIslamization period of General Zia ul Haq, whichalerted women across the country into taking noteof the rights and freedoms that were being takenaway from them, women had not questioned how manyof their rights were achieved on paper and howmany actually filtered down to the majority ofwomen in Pakistan.3 Ibid

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While Pakistani women may not have activelyhighlighted women’s issues and pushed the women’sagenda in the pre-Zia era, they were neverthelessnotably present, albeit few in number, whether inthe Pakistan Movement4 or other facets of Pakistanilife including labour5, the arts6, sports7, politics8

etc. One of the most disastrous outcomes of the Ziaregime was making the women of Pakistan invisible.Mumtaz and Shaheed have described the process bywhich Zia-ul-Haq and his Government systematicallyworked towards the removal of women from the publicsphere and the perpetuation of the image of themodest and chaste woman.

This process consisted of successive policies atState level that in essence laid out the behaviourwomen should have and roles they were expected toplay. By perpetuating discrimination throughadministrative and legal means, the system workedtowards making the position of women insecure,subordinate and inferior to that of men, therebycreating a social change within Pakistan,allowing the underlying patriarchal elements to

4 Ibid5 Ibid6 Ibid7 Ibid8 Ibid

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reign freely, making women extremely vulnerablein society.

The campaign started with the enforcement of thechador9 for all female government employees andwomen and girls in educational institutions. Thiswas followed by another campaign againstobscenity and pornography, which in itself is notan issue, except that the Government equatedwomen per se with obscenity, demanding that womenshould only be present in commercialadvertisements that were relevant to women. TheGovernment then proceeded to perpetuate a certainimage of women through the media, defining her asa care-taker in the home and only associated witharticles of housework; women could only appear inclothes that completely covered her, and that tooonly for 25 per cent of the commercial; womencould not appear on television during Ramadan.Along with this, pictures of women film starswere banned from newspapers; newspapers helddebates on modesty and obscenity; women weregenerally regarded as synonymous with obscenity,corruption and immorality.

If women were harassed, killed or raped in thestreets, or at home, it was because women had

9Ibid28

provoked these attacks by their speech, action orjust their very presence. Television programmesstarted depicting women as the root ofcorruption; working women were depicted as thecause of lax morality and the disintegration ofthe family and social values. From officialcampaigns and government-controlled television,it appeared that the only manner in which therapid deterioration of society could be checkedwas by eradicating the presence of womenaltogether.

The efforts continued with proposals to openseparate universities for women, as co-educationwas ‘un-Islamic’. The repercussions were that womenwere now being pushed out from other co-educationalinstitutions, being told to go to ‘their own’educational institutions, where it is important tonote, the quality of education was also lower.Along with the segregation of women in education,women were also pushed out of the sports arena.Initially training camps for international sportsevents in which women athletes were supposed to beparticipating were cancelled.

Thereafter the Federal Minister for Sports andCulture announced that women could only playsports in front of an all women audience, as itwas un-Islamic to play in front of na-mehram (all

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men excluding blood relatives), in effectexcluding all men. As a result, women were‘allowed’ to play in segregated compounds andwere free to play against international teamsunder Islamic conditions within the country, butwere not allowed to participate in events heldabroad.

Other efforts to segregate women included banningofficial coeducational social evenings, ofstopping the promotion and recruitment of womenin national banks, of cancelling the foreignpostings of single Foreign Office women, andpreventing women from taking up scholarshipsabroad.

Concurrently, women’s legal status was alsomethodically being reduced, in effect formalizingtheir secondary position in society. Thepromulgation of the Hudood Ordinances of 1979,the Law of Evidence and the Qisas and DiyatOrdinances were some examples of this. Evengender neutral laws that were meant to protectwomen were implemented in an extremelydiscriminatory and anti-women manner, creating along lasting erosion of women’s legal status.

All of this had a distinct negative psychologicaleffect on society. For women, it resulted in

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feelings of insecurity about their status andidentities, while also creating a fear about therepercussions of their behaviour. This wasstrengthened by the reaction of the men, as theenvironment gave support to the more conservativefactions of society, allowing them to takeadvantage of the situation to openly pursue theirown agendas.

With regards to women’s attire, this scenariocreated an atmosphere in the country whereby allmales became the judge of women’s modesty andstatus in society10. The atmosphere also allowedfor men to decide what is appropriate orinappropriate behaviour for women. It placedwomen in such a weak and insecure position thatmen could behave with them in any mannerwhatsoever, harass them, judge them or evenphysically harm them, there would be little or nosupport for women from the State or the society,giving men impunity to act as they wished when itcame to women.

10 Pg 8131

3. “Honour Killings”: their Prevalence and Understanding the Rationale

‘Honour’ crimes is a term used widely to refer tothe killing or harm induced on persons, usuallywomen, for the protection of the perpetrator’s‘honour’. A simplistic definition of ‘honour’killings is given by Rabia Ali in a report forShirkit Gah11: ' ‘[W]hen a man takes the life of awoman and claims that he did it because she wasguilty of immoral sexual conduct it is called anhonour killing, not murder’12. Another definitionstates: ‘Honor crimes are acts of violence,usually murder, committed by male family membersagainst female family members, who are held tohave brought dishonor upon the family’. 13

The term ‘honour’ crimes is a wide term whichincludes different manifestations of violence,such as ‘honour’ killings, assault, confinement

11 A prominent human rights organization in Pakistan

12 The Dark Side of ‘Honour’, Rabia Ali, Shirkat Gah13 ‘ Honor Killing in   Pakistan ’, filed on 11-06-2009, http://actdcmetro.wordpress.com/2009/06/11/honor-killing-in-pakistan/

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or imprisonment, and interference with choice inmarriage, where the publicly articulated‘justification’ is attributed to a social orderclaimed to require the preservation of a conceptof ‘honour’ vested in male (family and/orconjugal) control over women and specificallywomen’s sexual conduct, actual, suspected orpotential’14. The extra-judicial means employedin this ‘control’ of women are exercised usuallythrough customary practices, forming a part ofwhat has been termed “traditional

justice” or “tribal justice”, a contested form ofprivate retribution that many find unwarrantedand illegitimate15.

While the concept of honour killings goes back topre-Islamic Arabia, it has also been traced toancient Roman times, when the paterfamiliasretained the right to kill an unmarried butsexually active daughter or an adulterous wife.It is not known when, or indeed if, the practice

14 P.4, ‘Honour’ Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women, Edited by Lynn Welchman, Sara Hossain, Oxford University Press, 200515 Nancy V. Baker, Peter A. Gregware and Margery A. Cassidy."Family Killing Fields: Honor

16 Rationales in the Murder of Women." Violence Against Women 5,No. 2 (1991): 164–84.

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ended in Europe16. In Pakistan, the concept tracesback to Pakhtun and Baloch tribal customs. It hashowever since become prevalent in both Sindh andin Punjab, resulting in murders being committedacross the country without any regional or classboundaries.

Honour killings have transcended into moderntimes and are rampant across the world.

Pakistan is no exception to these killings. Theyare high in number, often non-reported thereforethe statistics collected even now are incompleteand can only give a slight over-view of what theactual situation may be. In fact, honourkillings, even from the incomplete number ofcases reported, is one of the most prevalentforms of violence against women in Pakistan.

Understanding the Rationale Behind ‘HonourKillings’

Understanding the concept of ‘honour killings’,as mentioned earlier, is extremely important tobe able to have a holistic understanding of thecrime. It is firmly based in a patriarchalsystem, obsessed with the idea of patrilineage17.16

17 P. 45, ‘Beyond Honour’, Tahira S. Khan, Oxford UniversityPress

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From this follows two important notions on whichthe whole concept is based.

Firstly, the idea of men’s ‘honour’ needs to beexplored. Knudsen18 defines it in terms offamilial respect (izzat) and social prestige(ghairat); as a relation between a person’s ownfeelings of self-worth and that of the peer-group(“honour group”) to which he belongs. ‘Honour’ isbestowed at the behest of society and, therefore,it can also be lost and must be regained.

The second notion is that of women as theproperty of men. This concept of women as objectsis based on tribal cultures. Khan points out:"Women are considered the property of the malesin their family irrespective of their class,ethnic or religious groups.  The owner of theproperty has the right to decide its fate. Theconcept of ownership has turned women into acommodity which can be exchanged, bought andsold"19.

18 Are Knudsen, ‘License to kill: Honour Killings in Pakistan’, Chr. Michelsen Institute Development Studies and Human Rights, 200419

Honour Killings in Pakistan, Neshay Najam, http://www.islamawareness.net/HonourKilling/

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This ‘commodification’ of women is directlylinked to the obsession with patrilineage i.e.ensuring protection/ownership of the women’swomb. As a woman’s only asset, as mentionedabove, is seen to be her reproductive capabilityand an object for sex desires, this concept istaken further to establish the need ofcontrolling women’s sexuality. By exercising anyfreedom, including sexual freedom, or attempts tobreak free of the control, she challenges thewhole social order, undermining the ownershiprights of others to her body. Women's physicalchastity is of uppermost importance, and by themerest hint of 'illicit' sexual interest a womanloses her inherent value as an object worthy ofpossession and therefore her right to life20. 

Khan discusses this in terms of a collectivepatriarchal male understanding. A man will beconsidered ‘respectable’ if he is able to controlthe sexual behaviour of his wife, daughters andsisters. This is only possible if he is able tocontrol their movements, limit their mobility andthereby reduce their interaction with strange menwith whom they threaten to ‘sully’ the family’s‘honour’21. The notions of ‘purdah’ and the ‘na-mehram’ play an essential role in this control.20 ibid

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He does this task on the assumption that if theydo not protect their women, they cannot beassured to get ‘clean’ ‘pure’ women forthemselves. This practice is not a cultural ortraditional phenomenon, it very much has aneconomic basis and material motives22.

By entering into an adulterous relationship awoman subverts the order of things, underminesthe ownership rights of others to her body andindirectly challenges the social order as awhole.  She becomes black, kari (Sindhi) or siyah,hence siyah kari in Balochi. Women’s' bodies mustnot be given or taken except in a regulatedexchange effected by men. 

Amnesty International23, also recognises theeconomic factors and advantages for men, relatingto this “commodification” of women. Some of theexamples of this ‘economically viable’ situationincludes marriage of girls within the family toensure property remains within the family;marriage of women to the Quran; payment of ‘brideprice’ at the time of marriage, especially in

21 Pg 45 ‘Beyond Honour’, Tahira S. Khan, Oxford University Press22 ‘Beyond Honour’, Tahira S. Khan, Oxford University Press23 Amnesty International Report: Pakistan: Violence Against Women in the Name of Honour, 1999

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tribal areas of NWFP, Sindh and Balochistan –including in the form of another woman; and bloodmoney i.e. the compensation negotiated to end adispute which besides money may involve a womanto be given to an adversary.

Therefore, the idea of ‘protection’ referred toearlier appears logical as women are undoubtedlyseen as objects ‘worthy of possession and need tobe controlled on account of their inherentvalue’. A man’s property, wealth and all that islinked with these are the sum of total value andtherefore it is an integral part of honour ofman, tribe etc.   A key observation is that"although honour is located in material wealth,the language and expression of honour resides inthe body. Women's bodies are considered to be therepository of family honour".  Honour in thetraditional settings is a male prerogative, it ismen who possess zan, zar and zamin (women, gold andland) that allows them to hold their heads up;women have no honour of their own24.

24 Honour Killings in Pakistan, Neshay Najam, http://www.islamawareness.net/HonourKilling/

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The question arises, what is it in femalebehaviour that sullies the ‘honour’ of men?Welchman and Hossain summarise a number ofreasons identified by different authors acrossthe world in the 2005 book “Honour’ Crimes,Paradigms, And Violence Against Women”25:

‘…the range of female behaviour considered to violate ‘honour’goes beyond sexual conduct (actual, potential or suspected) toinclude other behaviors that challenge male control (Aida ToumaSliman notes ‘staying out late and smoking for example)…howthese paradigms of ‘honour’ interfere with the right of choice tomarry across South Asia: forced marriage is one result, but otherscenarios include being forced to remain in an unwantedrelationship, or punished for leaving (or trying to leave) one, orexercising choice regarding whether to marry or not, and whom tomarry…the significance attached to female virginity and theresulting imposition (or attempted) imposition of virginity testingon females suspected of having ‘violated’ family honour, includingthrough having been subjected to rape. ‘

An examination of cases in Pakistan recognisesthat a number of these scenarios have been playedout locally. It is important to note that eventhe suspicion of any kind of behaviour that is

25 P.5, Honour’ Crimes, Paradigms, and Violence Against Women, Edited by Lynn Welchman, Sara Hossain, Oxford University Press, 2005

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seen to transgress social norms is sufficient forbesmirching one’s honour. Other examples includeeven a conversation with another man, pastrelationships, revenge honour killings, wanderingunaccompanied outside the home too often, leavingthe house without permission, being the victim ofrape etc. Defiance of any of the controls orsocial norms translates into women ‘misbehaving’and undermining men, the community and the socialorder as a whole, thereby needing to be punished,not just for her transgressions, but also as anexample to other women.

Once a woman has behaved in a manner that hasshamed the man and his honour, he has to restorehis honour in any manner whatsoever. Thenecessity to regain and protect a man’s honour isjudged by the community as a whole. The logic oftribal tradition turns conceptions of victim andperpetrator, right or wrong on their own head.Women who are killed or flee a killing are notvictims but are considered guilty in the tribalsetting.  The man whose honour has been tarnishedis considered to be the victim. It is with himthat the community sides, and not the ‘bad’woman. In order to restore his ‘lost honour’ theman must return the shameful act with one ofequal intensity in a very public manner. In

40

honour bound societies, female chastityrepresents the family’s “symbolic capital”. Toprotect it, the offending woman must be killedrather than divorced or excommunicated, an actwhich in itself is considered shameful. Killingher removes the offensive act, redeems familyhonour and resurrects its prestige. The murder istherefore a means to an end and usedinstrumentally to “restore honour” and “removeshame”.26 In this way, the man regains his honourand is morally and legally supported by hiskinsmen27.

26 Are Knudsen, ‘License to kill: Honour Killings in Pakistan’, Chr. Michelsen Institute Development Studies and Human Rights, 2004

27 “Honour Killing in Pakistan”, Neshay Najam, http://www.crescentlife.com/articles/social%20issues/honor-killings_in_pakistan.htm

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4. ‘Honour Killings’ and its Relationship with LawThe presence of murders termed as honour killingsexist not just in Pakistan but in variouscountries around the world. A number ofprovisions relating to honour killings exist indifferent legislations around the world. A numberof these provisions seem to be soft on the issueof honour killings. It is pertinent to note thatcountries such as Brazil and Colombia in the last2 decades have amended laws relating to partialor complete defence of so called honour killingsin their legislation28. However, there still existnegative provisions in different laws around theworld. It is also important to note that themajority of these also use ‘provocation’ as themain reasoning behind leniency.

Countries, such as Morocco, have systematicallyfailed to address the issue of honour killings.It, in fact, allows for leniency for the crimewithin its law. The only amendment it made was in28 the report of the Special Rapporteur submitted to the 58th session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (2002) concerning cultural practices in the family that reflect violence against women (E/CN.4/2002/83)

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2007 where it extended this leniency to womenalong with men.

In countries like Yemen, Lebanon, Jordan andSyria, the legislation allows for lesserpunishment where there is considered to beadequate ‘provocation’ by violating culturalnorms.

Article 232 of the Penal Code of Yemen states “ifa man kills his wife or her alleged lover in theact of committing adultery or attacking themcausing disability, he may be fined or sentencedto imprisonment for a term not exceeding oneyear.”

Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal Code, whichexempted from punishment men who kill a femalefamily member found "committing adultery," hasbeen repealed. Even though this constitutes astep in the right direction and is very welcome,perpetrators of so called "honour" crimes stillbenefit inappropriately from the provisions inArticles 97 and 98, which allow for a reductionin sentence if a man is "provoked" into killing.

Article 548 of the Penal Code of Syria alsoprovides an exemption from penalty if a man kills

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or injures his wife or female after finding hercommitting adultery or other “illegitimate sexualacts with another.”  The law also provides for areduction in penalty for a man who kills orinjures his female relative after catching her ina “suspicious state with another.”   Also ofconcern is the way in which legislation in variouscountries awards lesser punishment in cases wherethe victim is considered to have “provoked” thecrime by violating cultural norms.

Article 562 of Lebanon’s penal code says that ifa man catches his wife or female relativeengaging in sex outside of wedlock, he can killor injure her in a moment of passion and receivea lenient sentence. This legal protection doesnot, however, extend to a woman who happens uponher husband or a male relative in a similarlycompromising position.

Three other articles of the penal code (193, 252and 253) allow for crimes committed in certaincircumstances – including defending honour anddecency provided the criminal is not actingselfishly or for material gain – to receivelenient sentences. 

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Turkey is one of the few countries that haverecently amended its law. In September of 2004Turkey’s Parliament enacted a new law requiringlife sentences for anyone convicted of murderwith a “moral killing” motive29. The new lawdefined honour killings as voluntary suicide.Also, family members who encourage another memberof the family to commit a murder or to commitsuicide will be punished. Those who encouragechildren to commit a crime will be punished moreseverely.

‘Honour Killings’ and Pakistani Law

In Pakistan, honour killings have regularly comefor consideration before the courts for years.Until 2004, there was no specific legislationdealing with the issue. As a result, there is ahuge body of jurisprudence pre-2004 that has beenproviding narrow interpretations anddiscriminatory judgments for a long time. It isimportant to take a cursory look at how the lawon honour killings un-folded in order tounderstand and appreciate how the courts dealwith honour killing cases currently. It is29 Department of State, Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2004: Turkey, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, at 13 (Feb. 28, 2005), available at http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41713.htm 

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important also to have this information to beable to analyse and see whether there has beenmodification and advancement in the mindset ofthe judiciary while over-seeing such cases.

Honour Killing Cases pre 2004

In pre-partition cases, as Warraich30 notes, itwas a norm that a husband could benefit from theexception of ‘grave and provocation plea’ if hekilled his wife or her alleged lover if they wereguilty of adultery. The courts were quite willingto give this plea a broad interpretation. In theinitial post-independence years, court continuedto give token sentences to perpetrators ofalleged ‘honour killings’. Yasmeen Hassan notesthat the benefit of the plea was extended to men,giving them authority to monitor women’smovements and kill them if they defied the socialorder31.

Post-independence, much of the debate related tothe issue of Islamisation of the laws,30 ‘Honour Killings and the Law in Pakistan’, Sohail Akbar Warraich, ‘Honour’ Crimes, Paradigms, And Violence Against Women, Edited by Lynn Welchman, Sara Hossain, Oxford University Press, 200531 ‘Honour Killings and the Law in Pakistan’, Sohail Akbar Warraich, ‘Honour’ Crimes, Paradigms, And Violence Against Women, Edited by Lynn Welchman, Sara Hossain, Oxford University Press, 2005

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specifically the criminal law relating to murderand hurt,32 which directly relates to theprosecution of honour killings. The Qisas andDiyat Ordinance was promulgated to address thesupposedly anti-Islamic elements of criminal law.The law made a number of changes, as summarisedby Warraich33, followed by a discussion based onthe effects of these changes.

Firstly all cases of death at the hands of aperson were now termed as one of four categoriesof ‘murder,’ removing all previous categoriese.g. manslaughter. Secondly, sentences were givennot on the basis of the intensity or facts of thecrime but on the form of proof of murder and therelationship of the offender to the deceased.There are different requirements for the prooffor qisas (retribution i.e. death sentence) i.e.full confession to the satisfaction of the courtor requisite witness. If these requirements arenot fulfilled, the accused will be liable forsentencing under tazir (sentence of imprisonment ordeath sentence under normal law). Certainrelatives were already exempted by the law asbeing only liable for diyat (giving compensation),but with the court’s discretion to impose a

32 Gul Hassan judgment33

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maximum sentence of fourteen years ofimprisonment. Thirdly, the law stated that qisasshall not be enforceable where, according to theinjunctions of Islam, it is not applicable.Finally, the law now formally allowed the heirsof the murder victim or the victim of any form ofbodily harm, the right to ‘forgive’ an accused orto enter into a compromise with them involvingcompensation, known as ‘compounding’ the offense.

These changes in the law resulted in a largeamount of confusion over their application.Questions about whether certain articles relateto sentences under qisas and/or tazir. The case ofGul Hassan contributed to this confusion by addinga number of new definitions and new provisions.It stated that from an Islamic point of view, amurder could only be exempt from qisas in onlytwo situations: where the deceased was committingan act for which the sentence under Islam wasdeath, and where the murder had been in selfdefence. The judgment went on to add that Islamdoes not permit the murder of ‘one who is masoomud dam’ (one whose life is sacred or whose blood isprotected). This protected category is notclarified in the judgment. The court noted thatthe penalty for zina (sexual relationship outsidemarriage) is death; therefore, the murderer will

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be exempted from a death sentence under qisas.Further, the introduction of self defence as anexemption from qisas and the court’s elaborationof this concept resulted in even more problems inthe prosecution of honour killings.

The cases that came after this judgment continuedto give conservative and contentious judgments,continuing to mete out light sentences or setfree the perpetrators. The concept of masoom uddam was interpreted34 to include someone who wasnot entirely innocent, thereby widening the termand permitting murderers to declare their victimsmasoom ud dam and receive lesser sentences. Thestatement of the accused stood without scrutinyand the accounts regarding the victim’s conductwas given as the motive. This resulted in abarrage of cases where the victim’s conduct wasan important element in deciding the case anddirectly linked to the possible sentence. In somecases while using this as a reason formitigation, compensation for the heirs of thevictims were set aside, as the victims were not‘masoom ud dam’.

Self defence, as discussed above, was also anexception to qisas. Cases came forward raising

34 Mohammad Hanif50

the issue of use of self defence. The courtsinvoked the Quranic description of men as beingquwwam (superior) over women, that is,responsible for women including their safeguardand protection. This concept went further todescribe it as the basic right of men to ‘protectthe honour of his women and to defend them fromoutrage, disgrace and insult’35. The merger of allthese concept i.e. of self-defence and the victimwho is not masoom ud dam re-introduced the graveand sudden provocation exception. In fact, inother cases, it was noted that although the pleaof provocation no longer existed in cases ofmurder due to the changes in law, it could stillbe used as a mitigating circumstance in casesunder tazir36.

The Qisas and Diyat Act simply elevated elementsof traditional justice to statutory law andencouraged out-of-court settlements in accordancewith local customs, often involving monetarycompensation or exchange of marriageable girls,although the latter is invalid but not outlawed.While there were a few forward looking positivecases with regards to honour killings, themajority of the cases came out with negative

35 Ali Mohd v. Ali Mohd.36 Abdul Haque vs the State

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conclusions. Seemingly, the courts took advantageof the confusion to create wide interpretations,which fit their own conservative and anti-womenbiases, as opposed to providing justice equallyto all citizens. The result was that honourkillings seldom led to conviction andimprisonment, which could be an important reasonfor the subsequent rise in honour killings sincethe promulgation of the Qisas and Diyat Ordinancein 1990.37

The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 200438

In 2004, after years of advocacy from civilsociety, the Government finally passed an actmaking ‘honour’ crimes, especially ‘honour’killings illegal. The Criminal Law (Amendment)Act 2004, referred to as the Honour Killings Lawmade a number of changes in the Pakistan PenalCode 1860 (PPC) and the Criminal Code ofProcedure 1898 (CrPC), mainly making additions to

37Are Knudsen, ‘License to kill: Honour Killings in Pakistan’, Chr. Michelsen, Institute of Development Studiesand Human Rights, 2004

38 This section has been produced with reference to AuratFoundation publications: Honour Killings of women: Problems in the Law; We Demand Strong and Effective Legislation to Eliminate ‘Honour’ Crimes; ‘Honour Killings’ and the law in Pakistan’

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existing provisions to include qatl-i-amd(intentional murder) under the pretext of‘honour’. However, it is important to note thatdespite the huge amount of advocacy andcollaboration with parliamentarians, a number ofthe vital changes demanded by civil society werenot incorporated into the Act. The majoramendments made by the law are summarized below.

Amendments as per the Criminal Law (Amendment)Act 2004

The most important addition in the introductionof a definition of honour crimes was "offencecommitted in the name or on the pretext of honourmeans an offence committed in the name or on thepretext of karo kari, siyah kari or similar othercustoms or practices," which allow family membersto kill women, and also men, on the pretext ofhaving brought dishonour to the family.

The discretion of the court to decide whereaccording to the injunctions of Islam thepunishment of qisas was not applicable has beenremoved in reference to murder committed in thename, or on the pretext of honour. It alsoremoves the possibility of the murderer being the

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wali (guardian), while also allowing the State totake the responsibility of wali if necessary.

The punishments have been raised from 14 to 25years. Giving of women as badl-i-sulah (for marriageor otherwise in compensation for a crimecommitted) has been made illegal with penalties.In cases where all the wali do not waive orcompound the right of qisas, or on the principleof causing fasad-fil-ard (chaos or disorder insociety), the court may punish an offenderagainst whom the right of qisas has been waivedor compounded, while also giving a minimumimprisonment for 10 years in case of honourcrimes. Minimum sentences are also given fordifferent related offences. In cases of hurtwhere qisas will not be enforced, the court,along with arsh (compensation for hurt) may awarda punishment of tazir, especially if it is anhonour crime. In situations where the heirschoose to waive or compound the offence, in casesof honour crimes, a procedure has been laid downi.e. subject to conditions as the court sees fitaccording to the facts and circumstances of thecase.

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Changes in the CrPC include changes made toprocedure, i.e. higher ranks of police officerswill be assigned to investigate honour crimes andzina (sexual relationship outside marriage)offences. It clarifies, as above in the PPC,anyone who can waive or compound the offence, theconditions have to be approved by the court. Italso takes away the provincial governments’ powerto remit or suspend any sentence on honourcrimes.

Gaps in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2004

Despite the acceptance of the illegality of‘honour’ killings and ‘honour’ crimes, thereremain a number of fundamental lacunas in theAct, due to which the Act remains largelyineffective and does not provide relief to thevictims, as civil society and human rightsactivists had envisioned and urged. The gaps inthe Act are summarized below.

Punishment for ‘honour’ crimes is notmandatory, which makes the purpose ofintroducing the legislation redundant.

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The provisions of waiver andcompoundability, which almost inevitablypave the way for compromises, particularlysince most crimes of this nature take placewithin close members of the family, remainvalid in cases of ‘honour’ crimes. [Noexclusion of the provisions of Sections 309,310, 311, 338E PPC in the case of honourcrimes]

While ‘honour’ killing has been included inthe definition of fasad-fil-ard and aminimum penalty of 10 years as tazir laiddown (with a maximum of 14 years), theawarding of a penalty in cases where theright of qisas has been waived or compoundedhas been left completely at the discretionof the court. As in the past, this providesthe loophole for murderers to get away withminimal or no penalty. [Amendment to Section311 PPC].

Where the penalty of tazir is waived orcompounded in murder cases, the onlystipulation made is that the permission ofthe court is required and subject to suchconditions as it may deem fit. Apart from

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giving the court complete discretion interms of awarding a tazir penalty, there isnot even a minimal penalty laid down forsuch cases. This applies to all otheroffences e.g. under hurt. [Amendment toSection 338E PPC].

The definition (of honour crimes) may befairly comprehensive but it does not includethe words ‘whether due to grave or suddenprovocation or not’ at the end. Thus, itleaves space for courts to distinguishbetween and make concessions in cases ofwhat they consider ‘grave or suddenprovocation.’ [Amendment to Section 229 PPC]

The definition also combines ‘honour’killing with other ‘honour crimes’ (e.g.acid throwing, burning, nose-cutting etc.)which are usually women specific and arecommitted for other reasons also. By beingso general, it could become counter-productive, e.g. if a person caused ‘hurt’to a man for obscene or obnoxious behaviourtowards a woman, that person would alsobecome liable to harsher penalties.[Amendments to Sections 299 and 337N PPC]

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With regard to penalties, the only penaltiesfor ‘honour’ killings (if there is nocompromise) are (a) death or life imprisonment(i.e. 25 years) as tazir. While the intentionof providing a higher penalty may be a goodone, this has proved to be counter-productive.Where courts are already reluctant to giveharsh punishments in cases of ‘honour’ crimes,laying down a minimum of 25 years or death maydiscourage them from conviction in thesecases, just as the mandatory death penalty ingang rape cases makes conviction nearimpossible [Amendment to Section 302 PPC].

There is no mandatory minimum sentence for‘honour killings’ irrespective of therelation of the perpetrator to the victim39.

There are also concerns as to the differencein the penalties for the same crime: deathor life imprisonment (if there is nocompromise) as mandatory punishments; nopenalty or 10-14 years (if qisas is waivedor compounded) at the discretion of thecourt; acquittal or any amount of tazir (if

39

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the tazir is waived or compounded) at thediscretion of the court. [Amendments toSections 302, 311, 338E PPC].

There is no liability to ensure that otherswho are usually involved in, encourage orvalidate such killings, e.g. jirgas, panchayats,family members/elders etc.), and are thusprimarily responsible for perpetuating thesepractices, become equally liable to penaltyunder the law.

While it is positive that the issue ofgiving a woman in marriage of otherwise asbadl-i-sulah has been specificallyforbidden, this also needs to be accompaniedwith a penalty for all offenders. [Amendmentto Section 310 PPC].

There is no provision in the Act to ensurethat when courts allow compounding ofoffences, they must first satisfy themselvesthat the offence is not an ‘honour’ crime.It must be remembered that if strongerpenalties for such crimes are incorporatedin the law, the offenders might well choosenot to mention honour as a motive for the

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crime. Therefore, it becomes important forcourts to properly determine the issuebefore allowing the compounding of offences.

Though it is positive that the power tosuspend or remit sentences in the case of‘honour’ crimes has been taken away fromprovincial governments, however, the fact thatthe consent to suspension or remission beingallowed to victims or families of victims maycreate an avenue of continuing pressure onthem even after conviction of the offender.

Despite the promulgation of this Act, legalexperts agree that the existing laws leave amplespace for judicial gender biases to intervene andresult in lenient sentences to murderers, protectperpetrators from getting maximum penalties andfacilitate compromises which allow perpetratorsto get away with minimal or no penalty.40 Thesegaps in effect circumvent the entire idea ofeffectively prosecuting honour killings. Thereare so many loopholes that without diligence andactivism on the part of the court, it will be

40 P.251, ‘Beyond Honour’, Tahira S. Khan, Oxford UniversityPress

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hard to get very many convictions for honourkillings under this law.

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5. Implementation of the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2004

After 5 years of the legislation having beenpassed, the question arises as to how effectiveit has been. With this in mind, the pilot studyfocusses on two main questions: to investigatehow many cases of honour killings were beingreported to the police and being registeredacross the country; and how the courts wereresponding to cases of honour killings since thelaw was passed.

5.1 Registered Cases of Honour Killings

It is extremely difficult to collect accuratedata on the actual number of honour killingsacross Pakistan. Large numbers go unreported;others are categorised under other heads and aremissed. This is evidenced by the fact that evenorganisations and bodies that do try to collectdata on violence against women, including honourkillings, are on many occasions unable to matcheven their own data!

The media has played a fundamental role in datacollection. According to a 2009 report in the

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European Journal of Public Health, newspaperreports are a good source of surveillance wheninformation is limited41. Aurat Foundation’sViolence Against Women Policy and Data MonitoringProject (PDM)42 has done tremendous work towardsgathering data on violence against women since2008-10, as evidenced below.

Table 1: Number & Percentages of Cases of VAW inPakistan during

2008-2010

Categories ofCrime

Number of Cases of VAW in Pakistan duringJanuary 2008 to December 2010

Year2008 % Year

2009 % Year2010 %

Grand

Tot`al

Abduction/Kidnapping

1,784 29 1,98

7 33 2236 27.95

6,007

Murder 1,422 33 1,38

4 32 1436 17.95

4,242

DomesticViolence 281 20.

36 608 44.05 486 6.07

5 1375

Suicide 599 31.21 683 35.

59 633 7.9125 1915

41 ‘The epidemiological patterns of honour killing of women in Pakistan’, Muazzam Nasrullah 1,2,3, Sobia Haqqi 4, Kristin J. Cummings, European Journal of Public Health, Vol. 19, No. 2, 193–19742 Aurat Foundation has published 3 annual reports on statistics of violence against women for 2008 and 2010

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Honour Killing 475 28.98 604 36.

85 557 6.9625 1636

Rape/Gang Rape 778 29.43 928 35.

11 928 11.6 2634

Sexual Assault 172 30.28 274 48.

23 74 0.925 520

Acid Throwing 29 24.57 53 44.

91 32 0.4 114

Burning 61 39.61 50 32.

46 38 0.475 149

Miscellaneous 1,970 35 1,97

7 36 1580 19.75

5,527

Total 7,571

8,548 8000 2411

9Percentage% 31.10

%35.10

%33.17

% 100%

This data has provided a basis for analysis oftrends of violence, and will be instrumental inmeasuring social change as time goes on.

Methodology

The present study, supported by the findings ofPDM, has attempted to take a step forward andcollate registered FIRs on honour killings acrossthe country to see how they are pursued inrelation to the cases reported in the media. Fourdistricts were chosen as a sample group. Thechosen districts were:

(i) Naseerabad, Balochistan(ii) Ghotki, Sindh

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(iii) Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa(iv) Gujrat, Punjab

The districts were chosen with reference to PDMreports for their high incidence of honourkillings or, as, in the case of Nowshera, theextremely low reported incidents, but highnumbers reported by word of mouth.

Four researchers were hired from the fourprovinces, with the main focus to not onlycollect the relevant data, but also to conductinterviews in the different areas to try toascertain whether any attitudinal change hadoccurred in their respective regions. Theinterviews were conducted with community members,police officers, lawyers, the victims’ families,the families of the perpetrators and theperpetrators themselves.

Limitations and Problems Faced

From the onset of the project a number ofobstacles immediately presented themselves, onlyto be followed by more. These are summarisedbelow.

There is a serious lack of consolidated dataavailable. The researchers faced much difficultyin collecting data from the different police

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stations. In a number of police stations, theFirst Information Reports (FIRs) were notcategorised; in a number of others they were allwritten by hand in different files. Nor is therea standard format used. Researchers had to searchthrough the papers to find the informationrequired and then try to consolidate it for thepurposes of this study. There is no concept oftyping or printing complaints, FIRs or reports.Due to lack of resources, most of the policestations are not even equipped with computers,much less personnel who are familiar with theirusage. It was only because of the persistence ofthe researchers that the data was recovered, butit had to be consolidated mostly by them. This isnot to say all police stations had the sameproblem, but this issue was widespread.

Apart from the lack of consolidated data, thereis a huge problem with storage of the data. Allthe papers are placed in files and put incupboards, making it difficult for people torecover them. This issue with storage is commonacross other sectors as well, including thecourts. Without any other copies of a number ofthe reports, this led to disaster in a largenumber of districts, including Gujrat, where dueto the floods in 2010 large amounts of data was

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lost. Since the only manner of recording was byhand written complaints, reports etc, thesepapers are now lost for good. As a result, Gujratdata was not available from before 2008. Otherdistricts, which had high statistics on honourkillings, were perforce not included in thisreport because of the loss of data.

The categorisation of FIRs also presents aproblem. For example, in the district ofNowshera, there is officially not a single caseof honour killings registered, despite cases thathave been heard of through word of mouth43.Apparently, when cases of honour killings arereported, they are immediately lodged underSection 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, i.e.murder, as all honour killings are, but themotive is not mentioned, and they are classified43 In March 2010, a young man was killed by his uncle(mother’s brother) and no report was filed with the police.The families compromised and the victim’s family shifted toIslamabad. The victim was rumoured to be having an affairwith his uncle’s wife. Despite warnings the two hadcontinued to stay in contact, resulting in the murder ofthe victim by his uncle. The victim’s family didn’t reportthe case to the police, and compromised with theperpetrator’s family, as it was their family matter and thevictim’s family believed that their son was guilty.

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as simple murder as opposed to honour crimes orhonour killings. This reflects a social bias insuch areas against the concept of reportinghonour killings as a public issue, as opposed toa private, family issue.

Also, the main form of documentation with thepolice is FIRs. They do not keep records of casesfiles that are passed on to the court, nor arethey regularly updated with what is happeningwith the case. Therefore, if the police haveregistered a case, they may have no idea of whatthe end result was. What happened to the case?Was the accused found guilty or not guilty?

Further, there are cases that are reported as‘honour killings’ in police reports that wereactually cases of domestic violence and domestichomicide. This exhibits a lack of knowledge ofthe aspects of both honour killings and/ordomestic violence. As far as the police wasconcerned, a woman being killed in an argumentwith her husband or her in-laws made it an honourkilling as she ‘argued too much’ with herhusband.

Certain reports were recovered on an ad hoc basisfrom the courts. Initial efforts were made torecover court data with regards to honour

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killings, but the red tapism made it extremelydifficult to do so. In courtrooms whereresearchers were given access, similar problemsof data recovery and consolidation faced them.

It also proved to be difficult to interview allthose who the researchers set out to interview.The majority of the attempted interviews failedas people were reluctant to comment on the issue.Those who had suffered directly or indirectlyfrom this custom were even more silent on thematter. It became difficult to get people,especially community people, to speak on recordon the issue. Judges also refused to givepersonal comments on the issue.

Findings of the Research

The findings of the research have been placed inthe table below. This data is the collated resultof all the FIRs registered in the selecteddistricts from 1 January 2005 to November 2010.One of the main aspects this study was interestedin examining was comparing the number of casesregistered as FIRs to the number of casesreported in the media. Unfortunately thiscomparison was only possible from 2008 when theAurat Foundation Policy and Data MonitoringProject were initiated. Earlier statistics on

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honour killings are in a consolidated formaccording to province, as opposed to broken downdistrict by district.

Table 2: Data Gathered From FIRs across ChosenDistricts

No.Nowshera

FIRs44

Nowshera MediaReports

Ghotki

FIRs

Ghotki

MediaReports

GujratFIRs45

Gujrat

MediaReports

Naseerabad FIRs

Naseerabad MediaReports

2005 0 n/a 6 n/a * n/a 18 n/a

2006 0 n/a 11 n/a * n/a 18 n/a

2007 0 n/a 6 n/a * n/a 11 n/a

2008 0 0 16 36 2 1 12 34

2009 0 3 27 24 7 2 22 20

2010 0 1 42 37 17 05 8 10

This table compares the media reports with theregistered FIRs. Comparison is only available

44 No FIRs referring to honour killings are reported to havebeen registered in Nowshera.45 Due to the floods of 2010, a large amount of data in Gujrat was destroyed, including all data relating to FIRs before 2008.

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from 2008. This is sufficient as it bringsforward some interesting observations.

Nowshera

The main reason Nowshera was identified as asample district was due to its low reportedincidence of the crime, while reports fromresidents note a high number of honour killings.This is also evident from the table. As mentionedearlier, the police deny a single case of honourkilling ever being registered. Media reports tooreflect a low rate of incidents. Interviewsconducted in the area provided some insights onthe issue. According to one of the interviewees,women ARE being killed in the name of honour butare buried silently and the matter is kepthidden46.

A meeting was held with DPO Nowshera, Mr. NisarTanoli. In the very little time provided, he justexpressed a few things. He was totally unaware ofthe 2004 law and amendments to the law. The mostnotable comment was, “If you come to know thatyour wife is involved with someone, what will beyour reaction, won’t you kill her?”

46 Interview conducted with Azhar Ali Khan, Advocate, Noor Education Trust

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Police (Inspector, Sub Inspector andInvestigation Officer) and the members of theMasalihati Anjuman (officially constituted bodiesfor resolving disputes outside courts) of UnionCouncil Akora Khattak, stated that very oftenbodies of women are discovered in the river. Mostof them are murdered by gunfire. The policestated that in such cases they take the dead bodyin their custody and file the case as unknowndead body. Investigations are rarely followedthrough without any interest shown from anyfamily or community member to pursue the case.

When asked about the lack of filing or reportingof cases of honour killing cases, the reasongiven was that the murder takes place within thefamily. Women are killed in the name of honour bytheir husbands, brothers or fathers, andsometimes by other relatives. The victim andperpetrator’s families are relatives or membersof the same family, so no one is interested infiling cases. The most common answer was that“One life has been lost from our family and we donot want to lose another”. Interestingly, thissentiment was also echoed in responses heard byAIG (Islamabad) Ehsan Sadiq in his work as apolice officer in Punjab.

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Ghotki

Ghotki provides an interesting comparison. Whileacknowledging the role played by media and itsincreasingly regular and updated reporting on violenceagainst women, specifically honour killings, thistable shows the opposite situation in district Ghotki.In 2008, the situation was that media reports doubledthe number of FIRs registered, but the following twoyears reportedly reflect a decrease in media reportingwhen more FIRs were registered than reported by thepolice.

Table 3: No. of Honour Killing cases compiledby Aurat Foundation from District Ghotki during

Jan-Dec (2008-10)

Year 2008 2009 2010

Number ofcases

reportedin themedia.

36 24 37

This raises pertinent questions as to whether thefigures reflect tardiness in the media in Ghotki?Or does this reflect a discriminatory bias withinthe Ghotki media? Does it reflect that the policeis adept at keeping the issue on a low profileand not allowing access to the media? Does it

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reflect the community’s silence on the issue, notallowing for effective reporting?

Interviews conducted at community level show theconservative nature of the community. Theresearcher had an opportunity to interview ayoung man47 who had murdered his own sister. Hewas extremely proud of what he had done. Heclaimed he would have lost all his honour becauseof her behaviour if he had not acted as he did.He stated that he had been supported in hisactions by his immediate and extended family, aswell as the neighbours and others. His brother,who was also the brother of the victim, statedhis brother was indeed honourable. He noted thatall women were responsible for their actions andtherefore for their consequences, therefore hissister deserved to die. He also shared that onher death, the entire family celebrated her deathwith song, dance and firing in the air. Whenasked whether he knew about the 2004 law and thathonour killings were illegal and punishable, helaughed it off, claiming that money can buy youanything, including your freedom, so there was noneed to worry when you had money: ‘When you havemoney, no law applies to you’. His brother alsoconfirmed that the police always take money, so47 Names have been omitted for the sake of privacy

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there was no problem. Another family memberinterjected asking, who had the law reallypunished until now?

Local lawyers state that in such cases there isusually a compromise between the families beforethe case even gets to court. Therefore, there isno fear amongst the people about being punishedfor the crime. If the worst comes to worst, theperpetrators have to undergo three yearsimprisonment.

Gujrat

Gujrat also shows a similar situation as Ghotki.Seemingly, the media has not been as swift atreporting as in some of the other districts. Thetable also shows a sharp increase in the filingof cases of honour killings in 2010. This raisesqueries as to why there has been a sudden hike of10% registrations. All FIRs registered in Gujrathave been taken to court. Up to the time ofreporting, only one case had been concluded witha compromise, while the rest were still pendingjudgment.

The police noted that while a number of cases arebeing registered as honour killings, the reasonsfor the crime are actually different; but the

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murderer has more of a chance to be released orreceive a mitigated sentence if his claim ofghairat or honour is accepted48.

Table 4: No. of Honour Killing cases compiled by AuratFoundation

from district Gujrat during Jan-Dec (2008-10)Year 2008 2009 2010

Number of casesReported in the

media.01 02 05

During an interview the family of a victimrevealed they had been subjected to a lot ofpressure from the perpetrator and his family.They were threatened and finally were forced tocompromise and forgive him without conditions inthe court. A relative of the perpetrator notedthat the entire family did not support theperpetrator’s actions and in fact felt theirhonour had been harmed more by his actions thanthat of his wife. He felt that people were nowgossiping and talking about them, whereas theywere not doing that before. He also shared thatthere was no knowledge or information about the2004 law in the community. Had there been,

48 Interview conducted with S.I. Saghir Hussain Shah, Gujrat

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perhaps the perpetrator may not have committedthe murder.

Naseerabad

The media in Naseerabad was shown to be quiteactive, as it has almost accurately reported thesame number of cases as the registered FIRs in2009 and 2010. The fluctuation in the registeredFIRs is curious. While only 12 cases werereported in 2009, the figure almost doubles in2009 and reduces drastically in 2010, as shown intable No. 5.

Table 5: : No. of Honour Killing cases compiled by AuratFoundation

from district Naseerabad during Jan-Dec (2008-10)

Year 2008 2009 2010Number of casesReported in the

media.34 20 10

It is pertinent to note that the infamous case ofthe 5 women buried alive in Naseerabad49 occurredin 2009. With widespread controversy surroundingtheir murder, the confusion that reigned due to49 ‘Five women buried alive in name of honour’, Rauf Klassra, The News, 25-08-2008

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lack of information and finally the stand takenby Senator Israrullah Zehri in the Senatedefending the custom,50 may have had something todo with the low number of cases registered in thedistrict.

Arif Hassan, social commentator and author, notedthat in his researches regarding social change,with regard to honour killing, the communitycommitted these murders also as a warning toother girls who may be wishing to stretch theseams of the culture and tradition of theircommunity. Perhaps this has been one of the sideeffects in this case – the warning has beenheard. Further, the impunity with which thismurder was treated until the national andinternational hue and cry, may have affected thepsyche of the people. It does send the messagethat unless there is a high degree of pressureplaced upon the State, the State will notinvestigate. The State’s implicit support of suchactions is also seen through the appointment ofSenator Zehri as Minister in the FederalGovernment. The promotion, as opposed to demotionof a person who has so vocally supported thepractice of honour killings, in effect making him

50 'Anti-women' cabinet riles Pakistan activists, Saeed Shah, The Guardian, 12-11-2008

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even more powerful in the community, gives themessage to the nation that it is okay to supportviolence against women, to murder women and tocommit such criminal acts. It is but natural thatsuch actions on the part of the State shouldinfluence the community’s behaviour.

Analysis of the FIRs

Reading FIRs from across the country provides anumber of interesting observations. Some of theseare shared below.

Despite boundaries, different languages, regionalrivalries etc, it is astonishing how all of themcome together when it comes to killing women. Itbecomes clear that all these murdered victimswere killed without proper explanation,justification, a chance to defend or redeemthemselves. These men stood judgment on thesewomen, these human beings, and decided theydeserved to die. The motives behind the majorityof the murders were amazingly similar, if not thesame:

- Bad character- Bad morals- Bad behaviour- Bad character

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- Loose behaviour and morals- Leaving the house with or without permission- Illicit affairs (suspected or real)- Choosing to marry against the family’s

wishes/elopement- Wandering outside the house too often- Running away- Being the victim of abduction and being

murdered for the shame of her abduction- Leaving the husband/divorce- Previous marriages/relationships- Revenge- Any meeting/friendship/conversation with a

man not from the family.

There are other similarities in writing and instyle. For example, while generalising, thereseem to be only a few types of incidents thatoccur. One scenario is that the family issleeping at night and they wake up with screamswhen they see the perpetrator, alone or withaccomplices, beating/strangling/firing upon thevictim while stating she has been declared ‘kari’i.e. dishonourable. The murderers then run awaytowards the east. Another scenario is that thecomplainant hears screams from the courtyard ofthe house of the perpetrator or victim and runsto it to see the perpetrator standing in the

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door/veranda screaming that he has murdered thevictim as she was ‘kari’ with someone, and thenthe perpetrator runs away towards the east. Therehave been a few cases where the perpetrator hasrun away in another direction, but never to thewest.

The language in the FIRs is extremely curtwithout any thorough background information orgender sensitivity. It displays a dismissiveattitude to violence against women. While dramaand emotion is not expected, what is expected ismore detailed information in order to have acohesive report on the incident for theinvestigating officer to follow up. The completelack of details, the similarities across thenation, display that a particular format has beenadopted by the police on the type of reporting itwill do when registering cases. The duty of thepolice should include asking questions to gathermore holistic data on the incident. While thedata would not form part of the complaint,observations of the reporting officer should alsobe added at the end. A question that can validlybe asked is, is this non-creative, minimalinformation and unclear attitude also adopted bythe police during investigation?

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5.2 Reported Cases of Honour Killings

(i) Case Law in Pakistan

The courts, both district and senior level, areregularly faced with honour killings in itsvarious forms. Having examined how the courtsdealt with this issue pre-2004, an examinationwas carried out of court cases spanning the last5 years. Not all cases since 2005 have beendiscussed here, but a general opinion has beenformed, which is supplemented with examples.

Some interesting observations can be madestraightaway. For example, the majority of casesthat have come to the senior judiciary have beenin Lahore, with Karachi as the second mostapproached court. There has been no reportedjudgment on honour killings from Balochistan tothe knowledge of the researcher, and only ahandful in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Anotherinteresting discovery was that the defence ofprovocation was being used freely, much as in thepre-2004 years.

Supreme Court82

Cases that have come before the Supreme Courthave discussed the issue of honour killings, andalongside it the plea of grave and suddenprovocation.

In the very first reported case post the 200451

law, Justice Muhammad Nawaz Abbasi stated that,“[t]he commission of an offence due to ghairat or family honourmust be differentiated from the grave and sudden provocation inconsequence to which crime is committed in the light of facts andcircumstances of each case”. He notes that if a crime iscommitted with premeditation, the plea of graveand sudden provocation may not be available tothe accused.

Justice Abbasi provided further clarification onthis issue in a case decided later in the year52.He noted that while “[i]t is correct that in our Society, theillicit liaison of a female of the family is not tolerated but meresuspicion of such relations cannot be an excuse to commit murderand claim mitigating circumstance for lesser punishment. In thiscase, the court did not accept the actions of the accused were‘neither grave nor sudden’ ”, and therefore notsatisfactory for the mitigation of sentence.

51 Muhammad Ameer v. The State 2006 PLD 28352 Muhammad Arshad v. The State, 2006 SCMR 89

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Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani furtherelaborated on the defence of grave and suddenprovocation in Pakistani law in the case of AbdulJabbar53. The High Court in this case hadmitigated the sentence of death for murder in acase where the brother and first cousin of thevictim murdered the young woman, as she hadmarried without the consent of her family. TheHigh Court stated that, “In our society nobody forgivesany person who marries his sister or daughter without theconsent of his parents or his near relations,” and seeingthe victim with her husband caused grave andsudden provocation. While over-turning thedecision of mitigation of sentence by the HighCourt, Justice Jillani reiterated JusticeAbbasi’s earlier judgment, i.e. suspicion is notsufficient for a successful plea of grave andsudden provocation. Referring to earlier cases inPakistani jurisprudence, Justice Jillani quotedthat:

"A mere allegation of moral laxity without anyunimpeachable evidence to substantiate would notconstitute grave and sudden provocation. If such pleas,without any evidence are accepted, it would give a licenceto people to kill innocent people54." '

53 Abdul Jabbar v. The State, 2007 SCMR 149654 Mohib Ali v. The State 1985 SCMR 2055

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He also mentioned the judgment of a 200055 casewhich dealt with killings in the name of honour,where the Supreme Court specifically noted that:

“Before parting, I may add that by and large all thecases of grave and sudden provocation would notipso facto fall within the purview of section 302(c)particularly those of Qatl-i-Amd of wife, sister or othervery close female relatives at the hands of males onthe allegation of Siahkari.”

In other cases, the Supreme Court has now set astandard in cases of murder, if the accused isable to prove that he was “deprived of the capability ofself-control or was swayed away by circumstances immediatelypreceding the act of murder or there was an immediate causeleading to grave provocation” 56may be allowed amitigation in his sentence.

It is clear from a cursory examination of theseSupreme Court cases that the plea of grave andsudden provocation is indeed still allowed as amitigating circumstance. While there arejudgments that have firmly established that meresuspicion or any hint of premeditation will

55 Zahir and another v. The State 2000 SCMR 40656 Muhammad Zaman v. The State P L D 2009 Supreme Court 49

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cancel out the possibility of taking this plea,it leaves a lot of room for the discretion of thejudge. The fact also remains that this plea is,and will still be allowed, in cases of ‘ghairat’or ‘honour’, where there is evidence of theabrogation of this ‘honour’ and if the act wascommitted in the heat of passion. In fact, one ofthe judgments57 used by Justice Jillani in AbdulJabbar, quotes the example of when the defence ofprovocation may be used, as when a perpetratorupon “finding his wife in the act of adultery ... kills her or herparamour, and the law has always regarded that, althoughan intentional act, as amounting only to manslaughter byreason of the provocation' received".

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa High Court

In this region, the courts seem to continue todisplay a conservative, remain silent approach tohonour killings. A 2009 case58 conducted inPeshawar seems to refer to the murder of a girlon the orders of a jirga but never actuallystates this.

57 Lord Goddard in Kumarasinghege Don John Perera (1935) A.C. 20058 Umar Zahid vs. The State, 2009 M L D 4, Peshawar,

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‘The case of the prosecution is that on the day of occurrence therewas a jirga between the complainant party and one Umar Zahidwho allegedly took Mst. Shabnum deceased from her house in thedark hours. The deceased was buried without making any reportabout her un-natural death and it was subsequently discovered inan inquiry under section 174, Cr.P.C. that the death of thedeceased had occurred due to hanging.’

The judgment goes on to suppose that there is apossibility of this having been a forced honoursuicide. In any case, the perpetrator wasreleased on technicalities of the law. This alsodisplays a biased behaviour towards the murderersin this region.

Sindh High Court

While earlier cases of honour killings dealt withby the Sindh High Court (SHC) were not harsh onaccused, recently, the SHC has become more activein cases involving misplaced honour. Though not alarge number of cases seem to have come beforethe SHC, but in the cases that have, a number ofstrong statements have been made and positiveactions taken.

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Justice Shahid Anwar Bajwa stated that, ‘Karo Kari iscrime which is a blot not only on the fair name of Sindh...It has inthe comity of nations, always sullied Pakistan and MuslimSociety as a whole59’. In this case, the court tooknotice of the conspiracy of the entire family tomurder the victim for contracting a marriage ofher own choice and rejected the bail of theapplicants, while taking a strong stand againstthe heinous custom.

Justice Syed Shafqat Ali Shah Masoomi also notedin a judgment:

“The crime of ‘Karo Kari’ is increasing in the Province of Sindhand innocent girls are being killed under the worst tradition of‘Karo Kari’. In this worst tradition false and frivolous allegationsare levelled against the victim girls and they are never heard,and the declaration against girls as ‘Kari’ by their parents,husband and other family members is sufficient to treat themas. ‘Kari’ and once that pronouncement comes that girl istreated as ‘Kari’. In this part of the country the girls are beingtreated as cattle, just like buffaloes and goats, and the girlshave no right in such situations on the pattern of animals as the

59 Daimuddin and others vs. The State, 2010 M L D 1089,Karachi

 

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animals have no rights. Therefore, such girls who are beingdeclared ‘Kari’ are not required to be heard in those matters. Inorder to prevent such crimes the Courts of Law should have totake judicial notice while trying such heinous crimes.”

The Justice went on to comment on the procedureand environment of the court, noting that motherand sisters of the victims seemed to be underharassment and felt insecure, therefore hedirected that the trial court should ensure thatthe case is conducted in “an environment of completefreedom of mind of prosecution witnesses and to provide legalprotection to the prosecution witnesses.”

The spirit displayed in these judgments seems toindicate that given the opportunity the SHCwould potentially provide hard and appropriatelyharsh judgments against perpetrators andsupporters of honour killings. While the SHCdoes not seem to have had the opportunity topreside over too many cases reaching this stage,it will be interesting to note whether it carriesforward this spirit and translates it into itsdecisions and judgments.

Balochistan High Court

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As mentioned earlier, there seem to be noreported honour killings cases in the BalochistanHigh Court since 2004.

Lahore High Court

The Lahore High Court (LHC), on the other hand isseen to give a number of contradictory decisionsthat both condemn and seemingly support honourkillings.

In a 2006 case60, the court gave a strongstatement against honour killings. Whilerecognising that grave and sudden provocation wasnot an accepted motive for suspicion of illicitrelationship, and therefore the contention of‘ghairat’ as a mitigating circumstance was notsustainable, the court went on to state that,“Neither law of the land nor religion permitted so-called ‘honour –killing’ which amounted to murder (Qatl-i-Amd) simpliciter” andthat “honour-killing was violative of fundamental rights enshrinedin Articles 8(I) & 9 of the Constitution.”

The LHC proved to be vigilant while recognisingthat an accused could not prove his pleas of'ghairat ', 'self-defence' and 'sudden

60 Bashir v. The State, 2006 PCRLG 194590

provocation' as said pleas appeared to be anafterthought story61.

In a 2009 case, Justice Tariq Shamim notes that,“ ‘Ghairat’ has been excluded from being considered as anextenuating circumstance for awarding a lesser sentence62.”

However, despite these positive judgments, thereexist a larger number of negative judgments, which are discussed below.

There is a large amount of case law availablefrom the Lahore High Court over the years thatcontinues to provide grave and sudden provocationas an acceptable plea to reduce sentences formurder in cases involving ‘honour63’, as is alsoseen in the cases dealt with by the SupremeCourt.

The idea that killing for family honour isunderstandable is stated over and over again asan extenuating ground for grant of lesserpunishment64. In fact, in one case, it is clearlystated that. “Qatl committed on account of ghairat being not61 The State v. Muhammad Sarwar, 2007 YLR 7462 Kamal Shah v. The State, 2009 P Cr. L J 54763 Muhammad Waryam v. The State, 2005 YLR 1017; Mst. MatloobHussain v. The State,   2008 P Cr. L J 366  

64 Muhammad Imran v. The State , 2008 Y L R 1290 91

equivalent to Qatl-e-Amd the appellant is entitled to someconcession”65.

In a 2006 case66 the court simply states, “Recordhaving established that it was a case of family honour, award ofcapital sentence to accused, was not justified”. In a 2008case, it was noted that, “Killing over question of familyhonour on provocation has been accepted as an extenuatingground for grant of lesser punishment”67.

While the Supreme Court attempted to place somerequirements on the plea of provocation, a 2008LHC displays how the loose ‘requirements’ allowconservative and discriminatory translations, andtherefore implementation of the law results in alax attitude towards honour killings.

In this case, the court states that while “wewould detest killing on this ground. But we are conscious of thefact that a situation as is apparent in this case and which had ledto the occurrence was the cause of a grave provocation. Ifsomeone is provoked then his act is not one of pre-meditationfalling under the definition of cold-blooded murder. It is a casewhere human frailty governs consciousness and impulsedominates. We, therefore, agree with the learned counsel thatalthough this was a double murder case...”68.65 Muhammad Imran v. The State , 2008 Y L R 129066 Nasir Abbas v. The State, 2006 PCRLJ 497 Lahore67 Muhammad Imran v. The State, 2008 Y L R 129068 Sarfraz v. The State, 2008 YLR 969, Lahore

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This case in essence, removes the concept of‘pre-meditation’, stating if there as isprovocation, there is no pre-meditation.

In a 2007 case, the term masoom-ud-dam is shownto be still in existence and the social set-upand customs are given prevalence. The courtstated that while “human life was very sacred, but at thesame time prevalent social set up, traditions and customsprevailing in the society could not be ignored where men wouldsacrifice their lives to safeguard the honour of their womenfolk,which was not considered a big sacrifice in any manner” and that“No religion allowed widespread immorality to destroy the fabricof a family life”69.

The safeguards attempted to put in place by theSupreme Court, which stated that mere suspicionis not an acceptable reason for a plea ofprovocation and mitigation of sentence areclearly not followed by the LHC.

In a 2006 case, where a man was killed on thesuspicion of being the paramour of the murderer’swife, the court stated that, “Family honour killingswere to be discouraged, but it did not mean that the benefits ofmitigation were not to be given at all to the accused in whose

69  Sabir Hussain alias Pehlwan v. The State, 2007 PCRLJ 1159

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house someone had trespassed and invaded privacy to fulfil hislust70”.

In a 2008 case71 the court stated, “As the murder hasbeen committed out of suspicion of immorality, so award of lessersentence to the appellant was proper and highly justified.”

In a 2009 case72 the court noted that the‘possibility’ that the accused may have committedmurder due to ghairat cannot be ignored,therefore, the “awarding of capital sentence is a harsh orderand as such the death penalty awarded to Muhammad Akhtarappellant by the learned trial Court is converted to lifeimprisonment.”

As a result of this jurisprudence of law from theLHC, even a judge like Justice Pervaiz InayatMalik stated in a 2009 case73 that though he wasnot “persuaded to subscribe to this view for the simple reasonthat in the name of ‘ghairat’ and sudden provocation, licensecannot be given to any one including near relatives for committingmurder of citizens of Pakistan....” the court had to followprecedence and follow the law, and, as in thiscase, had to allow for accepting a reduction in70 Zulfiqar Ali v. The State, 2006 MLD 167671 Muhammad Farooq v. The State, 2008 Y L R 231972 Muhammad Akhtar, 2009 YLR 109273 Qaisar Ayub v. The State, 2009 P Cr. L J 1148

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sentence as ‘ghairat’ is accepted by the LHC as amitigating circumstance.

(ii)Analysis of Pakistani Reported Case Law

As is seen by the case law discussed above,‘honour’ or ‘ghairat’ is clearly still acceptedas a mitigating circumstance for reducedsentencing for murders under the guise of honour.In a large number of cases, the plea of grave andsudden provocation is still used.

While the Supreme Court has clearly accepted theuse of this plea depending on the circumstance ofthe case, this leaves open a wide gap forconservative and biased interpretation. This isevidenced by judgements given in a large numberof cases in the LHC. These judgments are areflection of how the precedents being set by theSupreme Court are being interpreted in lowercourts. While the Supreme Court may haveattempted to lay down a few specifications beforeacceptance of the plea of grave and suddenprovocation, but clearly it is being translatedas an acceptance of murder in the name of honour.In fact, apart from finding ways to circumventthe Supreme Court, a number of judgments do not

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even refer to the plea of provocation, butinstead simply state ‘ghairat’ as an extenuatingcircumstance.

The Sindh High Court seems to be the only courtthat appears to be developing a revolutionary andprogressive attitude in this regard, asexemplified in its strong statements.Nevertheless, due to a low number of honourkilling cases reaching the High Court, it is notyet possible to see how far the SHC will go inperpetuating this spirit while hearing suchcases.

The lack of case law in both Balochistan andKhyber Pakhtunkhwa is extremely worrying and alsodangerous. As evidenced by the FIRs and media inBalochistan, such cases do occur, but thequestion is what happened to them? In KhyberPakhtunkhwa, the problem of general acceptance ofthe crime by society and low reporting is alsoreflected in the data collected.

The questions that need to be asked are:

What should the role of the court be afterthe law has been passed? Should courts adopta more path breaking tone and attitude?

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While the plea of provocation is an acceptedplea in cases of murder across the world,does the specific crime of honour killingswarrant special treatment in not allowingthis plea to be entered?

It is clearly dangerous to leave thesentencing to the discretion of judges, asthey do not award the full punishment andallow their biases to seep through74.

74 While the author subscribes to the view that the death penalty should be abolished, the argument here is that the perpetrators of honour killings should receive the full punishment for murders without any exceptions, rather than any reduced sentence.

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6. Perspective of the CommunityWhile evaluating the implementation of any law,it is vital to also examine its effect, if any,on the community. Laws, especially those thatfall into the realm of ‘human rights laws,’ arepromulgated with the intention of creating asocial change. Accordingly, it is also importantto gain the perspective of the community as towhether any change has come about at all. It isalso essential to ascertain their point of viewregarding gaps in the law and its implementation,alongside any difference it may have made withinthe value and belief system of society and themode and prevalence of honour killings in societytoday.

For this reason a series of focus groupdiscussions and interviews were conducted in theselected districts with a variety of differentmembers of community, including the police,lawyers, health workers, NGO personnel etc. Thissection is a compilation of the discussions andinterviews. A number of views have already beenmentioned in the above sections, but they haveall been consolidated under this section.

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It is generally felt in the community that theincidence of honour killings has increased.However, the media states that there may not havebeen an increase in the incidence, but in thereporting of it. Whereas before no one would talkabout honour killings, now they are discussed,not just on a national and international stagebut even within smaller communities who hadpreviously considered it a taboo subject. ArifHassan has noted through his research that theincidence has increased and become more violentdue to the increasing freedom of women and theirattempts to gain these freedoms, as well as ofmurders being committed under the pretext ofhonour killings while in fact there are otherreasons behind it.75

Causes of ‘Honour Killings’

When discussing the causes of honour killings, anumber of different issues were brought forward.Some of these have been discussed above, such asthe dominating issue of supposed male supremacyand the subordination of women, as well as theconsideration of women as the property of men.

75 Interview with the author 99

The community also generally agree that one ofthe major causes relate to the supposed ‘honour’of men and the social non-acceptance ofdiminishing of ‘honour’. Often the socialintolerance and taaney (taunts) about the lack ofcontrol that men exert over their own householdprovoke the perpetrators into committing thecrime. And society plays the role of silentcondemner.

One important element discussed was the trend tocommit murder of women for a variety of reasonsunder the pretext of honour killings in order togive it social sanction, while in reality therewere completely different motivations. Theseinclude situations of family feuds in which womenare the bargaining chips as well as collateraldamage, revenge, desire to contract anothermarriage etc. Poverty was a major contributingfactor to a number of other issues, such asownership of property, or with regards toinheritance, i.e. removing women from the scenein order to remove a legal heir, or to place theblame on another to remove him as a legal heir.Land feuds have also been the actual motivesbehind honour killings, and accusing another forcommitting an honour killing of a woman in the

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family can be an effective way to blackmail andsue for financial gains through compromise.

As discussed above, women in recent years havealso started to transgress the social boundariesand break the bonds imposed on them by a maledominated society. With a greater number of womenbeing educated, or entering the work force, oreven being influenced through example, it becomesmore and more difficult for them to remain withinthe traditional mindset and existing confiningsocial set up. For example, traditional customs,such as child marriages and watta satta (exchange ofwomen in marriage between two families) haveresulted in women attempting to escape theircircumstances and consequentially being murdered.Women who try to enter into a marriage of theirown choice can face the same situation.

An interesting fact that surfaced across thecountry was that there is an increase in thenumber of honour killings at the time of theripening of the crop, i.e. when the agriculturalcommunity is at its most affluent. Because ofthis potential murderers feel that they canafford to enter into another marriage. They canalso claim a large sum of money from theirenemies by blaming them.

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Another contributory factor brought forward bydifferent members of the community was the roleof the vadera/zamindar (landowner) and the jirgas andpanchayats (council of elders in a village orcommunity). Both are powerful within thecommunity, and therefore hold the clout to dealwith community issues. They act as judges anddecide issues facing the community. These systemsare routinely used to prove the guilt of theintended victim.

With regard to the vadera, the decision takesplace at the home of the landowner. It is nowreported to have almost become a business, wherethe landlord takes a commission for his personalexpenditure and reserves the right to sell offthe woman or keep her at his house. Or he decidesthat that a large amount of money has to be paidby the offending party as khoon baha (bloodmoney), or that a girl (chatti) has to be givenas badal/aiwaz (compensation).

These feudal landlords and tribal chiefs areactive in some way or another in the commissionor covering up of honour killings and crimes.These same people are also sitting in thelegislatures and they actively oppose the passingof any pro-women legislation. It was due to their

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pressure that the 2004 law remains flawed and theapplication of the Qisas and Diyat Ordinance wasnot revoked.

It was noted by the community that the crime ofhonour killing is now also used in another way.People kill the victim themselves and report itas suicide. The woman is taken outside the houseduring the night and killed.

Awareness about the Criminal Law(Amendment) Act 2004

Questions relating to awareness about the 2004law and its effects resulted in divergentanswers.

It was a little shocking to realise that therestill remains a large amount of ignorance aboutthe law. This ignorance is not just confined tolay people but also includes lawyers, mediapersonnel, civil society members and even thepolice! It is felt that there is relatively moreawareness in the urban areas, but in ruraldistricts there is little information on thematter.

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This is disturbing, as an indirect effect of thepromulgation of a punitive law on a specificissue, such as honour killings, is to discouragepotential murderers. It also provides potentialvictims with a sense of support knowing that theyhave some sort of legal protection from beingmurdered under the pretext of honour; andprovides the victim’s family with a law that canassist them in obtaining justice. However, giventhe complete lack of awareness, this is nothappening. The community is unaware of the law,so it has no effect on their attitude, reactionand treatment of incidents of honour killings.

This is largely so because of the lack ofknowledge about the law in the justice sectoritself. If the police and lawyers are not awareof the law, even if cases are brought to them,they will not implement the relevant sections ofthe law, and the ignorance will continue.

The ignorance of the law of the police isextremely perturbing, as they are the first pointof contact before and after a crime and play amajor role in the prevention and investigation ofa crime. If they are ignorant about the existenceof the law and its substance, then they cannottruly effectively deal with the issue. A number

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of police officers stated that their seniors mustknow of the law, and that there was no procedureto provide regular updates about laws. The DSPLegal, Islamabad, noted that it is the obligationof every senior police officer to update himselfabout the laws and to share this information withhis subordinate officers. However, this isclearly not happening on a consistent or largescale76. Therefore, in the honour killing casesthat come before them, the specific elementsdealing with honour killings are not beingapplied!

There are, nonetheless, people who do know of thelaw. However, even within this group they do notnecessarily understand all it entails, therebymaking them practically as ignorant. For example,a common misconception is that an honour killinghas to now be registered under a separateprovision enacted under the 2004 law, while inreality, the 2004 act has mostly just amended andadded to the existing PPC in order to improve itseffectiveness in dealing with cases of honourkillings.

Even having knowledge of the law has not provedto be very helpful. The role of the police will

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be discussed below, but suffice it to mentionhere that the few police officers who do know ofthe legislation do not necessarily employ it fora number of reasons. Alongside this, there are anumber of perpetrators or potential perpetratorswho are not daunted by the law. They say that thelaw does not have control on this issue. Theynote that due to the involvement of powerfulfactions of the community in such crimes, theyare not considered ‘offensive’. Further, due tothe overwhelming social acceptance of the act,action rarely follows. And if it does, they areconvinced that money will be sufficient to dealwith the issue. Unfortunately, they are not wrongeither.

Nevertheless, there is a positive side for thosewho do know about the law. Firstly, thepromulgation of the law removed the barriers todiscussing the issue. Hence although a large partof the district media may not know of the law, ithas received wide coverage in the national media.This has had the effect of bringing to light agrowing social intolerance of honour killings.One primary example is the outrage againstSenator Zehri when he defended the tradition ofhonour killing in his area, and the unanimouspassing of a resolution in the Senate condemning

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the honour killing of 5 women in Balochistan,whereas a few years ago at the time of theinfamous murder of Samia Imran in Lahore, asenator from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (previously NorthWest Frontier Province) had defended thetradition openly and a resolution condemning theact was thrown out of the Senate.

Also, it is not as easy to commit honour killingsas it was before, with methods being employed tohide the commission of such crimes, whereasearlier there was no need to do so. Triballeaders, landlords etc. have also distancedthemselves publically from this tradition. Beforethe promulgation of the 2004 law, honour crimeswere committed without any fear, but now thesecrimes are committed by making some verytechnical entries in the FIR with the help of thepolice in order to protect the murderer. Soperhaps there has been some positive change!

Role of the Community

It is generally agreed that the community playsan extremely important role in the commission ofhonour killings. Although society is divided onthe acceptance or rejection of honour killings,they are nevertheless involved in a variety ofways.

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Attitudes prevailing in the community play therole of instigator. It is according to thestandards set by the community that ‘honour’ isheld to be a vital ingredient, and that women areseen as the gateway to men’s ‘honour’. Thecommunity constantly perpetuates the subordinaterole of women, and if a woman tries to break outof this role or behaves in a manner not‘acceptable’, then it is community who condemnsher and thereby condemns her family. It is thecommunity that is intolerant of women behavingany differently, and it is community that expectsthe misbehaving woman’s family to ‘handle’ her,i.e. remove the stain on their family honour. Itis also the community that pressures and tauntsmen to control their family. Therefore, it can besaid that it is the community that places the menunder pressure to behave in a certain way.

The community also plays a major role through itspassive role in not extending help to thepotential victim or the victim’s family. Themajority of community members remain neutral orsilent, and try not to intervene in order toavoid their own involvement. Getting involvedcould result in becoming part of a family feud orplacing them or their own family in danger. This

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passiveness of the community in a senseencourages the perpetrators to get away with suchmurders.

Further support is gained from the community’sreaction post the commission of an honourkilling. The community treats the family of thevictim very harshly, socially isolating them.They try to disconnect themselves from thefamily. In most of the cases it becomesimpossible for the victims’ family to live withtheir respect intact in their own community. Thesiblings of the victim, especially the girls,suffer because people in the community areunwilling to marry girls belonging to thevictim’s family.

In contrast to this, the murderers are treatedwith respect. Some members of the community seethem as the custodians and protectors of honour.

Society also has a general disrespect for legalinstitutions because of the fact that cases takento court take a long time to get resolved.Usually the matter is settled out of court,sometimes with prior permission from the court.The community generally believes that since thisis a matter relating to honour, it would bedishonourable to even bring it out in the public

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realm. It remains hidden and is covered up. Ifthere is a dispute, the parties prefer to dealwith it out of court through vaderas, jirgas andpanchayats.

Role of the Police

The police play an important role as the firstpoint of contact. The ignorance of the policerelating to the 2004 law has been referred toabove. This ignorance is extremely problematicbecause rather than implementing any of the newprocedures or rules laid down in the law, thepolice follows its own chosen procedures andmethods. As a result, justice is not always givenaccording to standards set by the law.

The police have its own problems. For example,there is often little or no evidence available.The police, due to lack of funds, do not alwayshave recourse to modern methods of investigation,nor the training for such investigation.Furthermore, often there is collusion between theperpetrators and victim’s families where falsewitnesses and false complainants are broughtforward in order to ensure a weak case for theprosecution; therefore the perpetrators are

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declared innocent and the case can never be takenback to court. This is because, as said earlier,an out of court settlement is preferred. Suchmatters are out of the hands of the police as itis.

The police also have a lack of funds andpersonnel to deal with these cases. They areoften deployed for other priorities, e.g. tocombat terrorism or for VIP duty. There is ashortage of staff and personnel with the relevantexpertise to deal with such cases. Often whenlife threats to victims are reported, the policemay not have the staff or facilities to be ableto get there in time to prevent the crime. Nor dothey have the capacity to effectively provide thenecessary protection for potential victims.

The police can, and also does, play an extremelynegative role in some cases. For example, evenwhen honour killings are reported to the police,by using technical language and entries, theymanage to avoid the filing of the case as anhonour killing. The cases are entered as murderand deliberately misrepresented, as are othersexual offences, and also cases involving land orinheritance matters. The words ‘honour killing’are never actually used, which means that any

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positive aspect of the 2004 legislation isavoided such as the restrictions on compromiseetc. The police is also known to take bribes tochange the crime from honour killing to anythingelse. The law also states that any law under the‘pretext’ of honour should fall under thislegislation, however, this is not followed.

The FIR and investigation are vital in anycriminal case, especially honour killings. Ifthese are not done properly, the entire casecollapses. Incomplete or wrong FIRs and ineptinvestigations are common, and are largelyresponsible for the low rate of convictions. Theycan be blamed on the lack of capacity of thepolice, but are also deliberately done to weakenthe case and favour the perpetrator.

It is usually difficult for the police to controlhonour killings because of the prevailing tribaland zamindar system in the country. When senior,powerful and, often, political individuals areinvolved, the police is often stopped from doingtheir job, and are told by their seniors, who arepressured by influential people, to stopinvestigating, or to come up with a certainresult.

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Due to unwillingness to even recognise honourkillings, districts such as Nowshera do not haveany record of honour killings, despite the factthat a number of such crimes have been committed.

This also results in restrictions on the media,who use the words quoted in the FIRs, which donot mention ‘honour’. Therefore, in suchdistricts, without aggressive media attention,there is also a lack of media reporting on theissue.

Also due to the majority of cases ending incompromise, the police involvement becomesredundant. They, in fact, support and try to worktowards effecting a compromise sooner rather thanlater.

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7. Conclusion and Main FindingsIt is evident from this research that theCriminal Law (Amendment) Act 2004 has not had thedesired impact. Nevertheless, one cannot say thatit has had no effect at all. The positive andnegative impacts of the law are discussed below.

The law has definitely not put an end to honourkillings, nor can it be seen to have drasticallyreduced it. In fact, according to sections of thecommunity, incidence has actually increasedinstead of decreasing. The community and parts ofcivil society remain ignorant about the law andits substance, thereby immediately reducing itspotential impact. The motives behind honourkillings remain the same pre-2004 to post–2004.In fact, seemingly, there has been an increase inthe use of the pretext of honour killings becauseof some exemptions that are available under thehonour killing law. This is because the case lawhas now started using honour killings as amitigating factor for punishments awarded,thereby one can get a minimum sentence due to thediscretion of the court.

There are some positive factors too. While thelaw may not have had the immediate effect of

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making the community aware of the evils of thistradition, nor of actually stopping the practice,it has resulted in the issue being taken out fromthe home, brought into the public realm and ontothe front page of the main news. Increasingreporting of honour killings puts the spotlighton this social evil, stating it to be wrong andtragic. This has resulted in creating in thecommunity, to some extent, albeit a small butdefinite attitudinal change that can be seen inthe growing intolerance to such murders. On thenational and international level it is understoodthat these crimes are wrong and are heinous innature. The mindset is slowly changing toconsider honour killings to be wrong. Thisattitude needs to sink deeper in the mind of thecommunity before any social change can occur.However, this is the stage where a re-introduction of the law can be pursued in orderto ensure convictions of the perpetrators.

The Main Findings

1. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2004 made anumber of changes to the existinglegislation to include the offence of‘honour killing’ and deal with issues which

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are ancillary matters, such as stating thatthe murderer cannot be the wali, makingillegal the exchange of women as badal-i-sulh,making changes to police procedures as toinvestigation, etc.

2. However, the 2004 Act did not remove theoption of Qisas and Diyat, leaving one ofthe biggest loopholes in the law, wherebythe majority of perpetrators are allowed ogo free.

3. The methodology of recording data is flawed.There is no standardised format used; allthe registration and record keeping is doneon paper by hand, resulting in data beingeasily misplaced. Due to lack of resourcesand capable personnel, there are none or fewcomputers given to the police stations forthe recording of data.

4. Storage is another major issue, as all thedata is paper-based and filed and placed indrawers and cupboards making it difficult torecover, much less find what one is lookingfor.

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5. There is a lack of consolidated and accuratedata on honour killings. Contributoryfactors include absence of proper reporting,general misreporting as when honour killingscases are filed under another ‘motive’ etc.

6. There are also problems with the

categorisation of FIRs, where the offence isoften filed under other categories as simplemurder, lesser forms of violence, suicide,domestic violence etc. This contributes tothe problems of recovery and collection ofdata, as well as to the misreporting ofcases. On the converse side, a number ofcases of domestic violence and domestichomicide were filed under the category ofhonour killings, revealing a lack ofknowledge and understanding of the policeofficers about the crime of honour killing.

7. Lack of co-ordination and follow-up fromdifferent sectors of the justice sector alsoresult in incomplete documentation wherethere is documentation. For example, if thepolice register a case, they do not followup the case in court to arrive at the finalresult and consequence of the case.

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8. An interesting aspect of the study was acomparison between registered FIRs and mediareports. This resulted in mixed trends fromNowshera, where there were few mediareported cases and even fewer registeredcases, but a large number of cases reportedword of mouth, to Naseerabad, where themedia was shown to be extremely active withregular and accurate reporting.

9. An analysis of the FIRs has resulted insimilar motives recorded behind thesemurders across the nation, which are basedon the women’s attributes and behaviour,including: bad character; bad morals; badbehaviour; loose behaviour and morals;leaving the house with or withoutpermission; illicit affairs (suspected orreal); choosing to marry against thefamily’s wishes/elopement; wandering outsidethe house too often; running away; being thevictim of abduction and being murdered forthe shame of her abduction; leaving thehusband/divorce; previous marriages/relationships; revenge; and

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meeting/friendship/conversation with a mannot from the family, etc.

10.The language of the FIRs also reveals anumber of problems, e.g. the language isextremely gender insensitive and displays adismissive attitude towards violence againstwomen. Moreover, there is also lack ofrelevant information. For example, there isoften little or no background information orobservations of the reporting officer ondetails of the incident for effective followup investigation. The FIR is extremelyminimal. The language and reporting of theincidents is surprisingly similar across thenation without anything extra. The police donot seem to ask any further questions, orask for more information to give a completeholistic report.

11.An examination of the reported case law fromacross the country reveals an interestingcontradiction. The Supreme Court has givenclear judgments stating that if a crime iscommitted with premeditation, the plea ofgrave and sudden provocation may not beavailable to the accused and, in fact, that

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mere suspicion of illicit liaisons cannot bean excuse to commit murder and claimmitigating circumstance for lesserpunishment. Strong statements were also madethat if pleas such as grave and suddenprovocation were accepted without anyevidence, it would give a licence to killinnocent people. However, ironically, theSupreme Court did set a contrary standardthat if the accused is able to prove that hewas “deprived of the capability of self-control, or was swayed away by circumstancesimmediately preceding the act of murder, orthere was an immediate cause leading tograve provocation” he may be allowed amitigation in his sentence. Therefore, thejudgments do leave some room for mitigationof sentence, but with a strict standard.

12.These precedents are not necessarily beingfollowed in other courts. In Lahore,specifically, there have been a number ofcontradictory judgments. There are judgmentsthat clearly state that there is no room forhonour killings, and any such killings willbe considered as simple murder with nomitigating factors. But there is a largeamount of case law available from the Lahore

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High Court over the years that continues toprovide grave and sudden provocation as anacceptable plea to reduce sentences formurder in cases involving ‘honour.

13.The Sindh High Court has specifically givensome very positive statements, includingfocusing on the involvement of the wholefamily in the conspiracy of murder. Otherjudgments, however, time and time againallow ghairat and ‘honour’ as a mitigatingfactor allowing perpetrators lessersentences and, on occasion their freedom!Grave and sudden provocation is being usedwidely and freely as honour is nowconsidered an extenuating ground forgranting a lesser punishment. The termmasoom-ud-dam, which technically should notbe used in cases involving honour crimes,has been used in judgments, laying the blameon the victim, indicating her behaviour hasresulted in her ‘rightful’ death, as ‘Noreligion allowed widespread immorality to destroy thefabric of family life’.

14.The superior judiciary in Balochistan andKPK does not seem to have any recorded cases

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involving honour killings. This, along withthe above mentioned judgments has resultedin an acceptance of honour killings by anumber of the courts, which goes against thespirit of the law and against all humanrights.

15.Interviews conducted with the families ofthe victims and perpetrators resulted in anumber of interesting revelations. Firstly,both the families are often the same, andthe general sentiment is that they have lostone family member and do not wish to loseanother. Secondly, the cases usually resultin a compromise between the families beforethe case even gets to court. Thirdly,because of compromises between the familiesand the several gaps that lie within thejustice sector, the perpetrators are rarelypenalised, which results in a lack of fearamongst the people about being fullypunished for the crime. At the most, theyhave to undergo a minimal period ofincarceration.

16.Another issue that has come forward is thatmany cases which are in fact simple ‘murder’are being categorised as honour killings to

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give it social sanction, and because themurderer has more of a chance of beingreleased, or receiving a mitigated sentenceif his claim of ghairat or honour is accepted.A variety of different motives behind ‘socalled ‘honour killings’ were seen, whichincluded both motives relating to ‘honour’as well as others, and were categorised ashonour killings to cover up murder. Theseincluded murders committed as a warning toother girls who may try to stretch the seamsof the cultures and traditions of theircommunity. At the time when the crop isripening, when the agricultural community itat its most affluent, a number of issuescome up, such as money disputes,inheritance, etc. in which women suffer asthe victims, as accusations are made andmoney demanded and paid in compensation.

17.The landlords, the vadera/zamindar and jirgasand panchayats all play an important role inthe community as they often deal withcommunity issues as judges and as decisionmakers. A number of issues arise with thesepower players. For e.g. cases are oftendecided at the homes of power holders who

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are paid a commission. Members of jirgas andpanchayats also often charge a commission andare instrumental in perpetuating their powerhold through these illegal forms of justice.The judgments declared by these men (theyare always men) are often arbitrary,patriarchal and very anti-women, such asgiving women in exchange, women in revenge,and treating women as bargaining chips andproperty.

18.There is little awareness of the 2004 law onhonour killings. The community at largeeither does not know of it, or does not knowthe specifics of the law. But what is farworse is that this ignorance also existswithin the fundamental players of thejustice sector, including the police,lawyers and even judges. The duty of all ofthese players is to remain updated on thelaw, but as interviews reveal, most areunaware of even the existence of the 2004laws. This is worrying, as without theawareness of the law within the community,it will have no deterring effect. Further,if the justice sector, specifically thepolice is unaware of the law, they will

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never correctly charge the perpetrators norimplement any safeguards of the 2004 law,allowing women to be as vulnerable as theywere before.

19.The police is often unwilling to implementthe law due to the overwhelming socialacceptance of the act and the influence ofpower holders. Often they are reluctant totake the case forward, as mostly the casesare compromised out of court. The policeoften try to bring about this negotiationthemselves, as they feel that it is for thebenefit of both parties to avoid the hassleof a court case and settle the matter beforetaking it to court.

20.Some positive aspects of the promulgation ofthe law include that it opened barriers toopenly discuss the issue of human rights. Ithas brought the issue into the mainstreamand has increased the national andinternational coverage of the issue. Thefact that the media coverage shows honourkillings in a negative light has the effectof building social intolerance for thecrime. It is not as easy to commit honour

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killings as before without facing someconsequences, even if it is publichumiliation, nor is it openly justified bymany as being a ‘cultural tradition’.

21.The community plays an important role asinstigator to such crimes, especially byperpetuating the subordinate role of womenand the attitude that they have to be‘punished’ should they transgress this role.In cases of honour killings, it plays apassive role and tries not to get involved,because this could result in a feud againstthem. The victim’s family also suffers asthe community isolates them socially.

22.Society in general has disrespect for thejudicial system and legal institutions owingto a variety of problems in the system, suchas delays in cases, high costs oflitigation, etc.

23.The police face a number of problems, suchas lack of funds and personnel to deal withthe cases, specifically trained men andwomen. Apart from internal problems,externally too investigating these cases is

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difficult for the police as they do not havemodern knowledge or resources to investigatecrimes. Further, often there is collusionbetween the perpetrators and the victim’sfamily where false witnesses and falsecomplainants are brought forward in order toensure a weak case for the prosecution,probably because they do not want the matterto be publicized, or they prefer tocompromise. Therefore, the perpetrators aredeclared innocent and the case can never betaken back to court. Such matters are out ofthe hands of the police.

24.The police can play a very negative role byavoiding or refusing to file cases of honourkillings. When they do report them, the FIRsare gender biased and made to sound as ifthe woman had a ‘bad’ character; thereforethere was justification in killing her. Theydo not always categorise the FIRs correctly,leading to lost or inaccurate data. Thepolice, unfortunately, is also known for itscorruption.

25.Minimal or incorrect facts regarding theincident recorded in the FIRs by the police

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are often used to shield the perpetrator, asin other types of cases.

26.This also leads to problems with the media,who use the words and language in the FIRwithout the relevant data being reported.Thus, the media may also convey incorrectfindings.

27.With the state not willing to act with aswift, immediate and strict response, butweakly, a message is sent out to societythat such murders are acceptable. This‘security’ given to murderers and potentialmurderers is further strengthened when theGovernment appoints Senators and Ministerswho are clearly anti-women and havepublically defended honour killings.

28.Murder under the pretext of ‘honour’continues with impunity, and all of theabove mentioned findings lead to the sadconclusion that it will continue withimpunity unless strong, concerted anddecisive measures are taken to address theproblems identified by the report.

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8. RecommendationsThere are a number of recommendations to be made.These have been noted below.

Recommendations regarding the law have alreadybeen shared earlier.

In terms of evaluating a proper and completeimpact of the law, there needs to be greateraccess to the courts. A study like this one canexamine how many people were charged, how manywere arrested etc., but due to the lack of properpolice records, or accurate information regardingthe end result of the registered cases, withoutaccessing the data available in the court manyquestions will remain unanswered. It is only thenthat questions such as: How many accused werebrought before the court? How many of them wereconvicted? What were the arguments of the courtetc. be answered. In order to arrive at a properunderstanding of the whole issue, it is vital toconduct a similar and corresponding study throughthe courts.

Also, a standardised format for registering FIRsmust be decided upon. It should include questionsspecifically relating to honour killings as well

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as domestic violence and any or all other formsof violence against women.

There is a need for major education and awarenessabout the issue and the law. Clearly, currentmethods have not resulted in the informationbeing spread far and wide. Media plays animportant role, and not just to report the latesthonour killing, but also providing details aboutthe law and its implications. Children,especially, but also adults, need to be educatedabout honour killings on some forum or the other.The State needs to take a stronger role to ensuredissemination of information. One suggestionrelating to the police could be that the policeshould hold a meeting with the community everyweek to discuss different communal issues anddifferent laws.

The police system is in dire need of a majoroverhaul. Apart from issues of corruption, lackor transparency and monitoring, police alsodesperately need training on the latest methodsof investigation, as well as modern tools andtraining on how to use them. They need to bestrengthened in terms of time management,assessing priorities regarding a heinous crime,such as this, and be updated on different and new

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techniques, such as forensic investigation. Theremust also be some system that ensures that allpolice officers are trained and informed aboutthe latest laws – especially those personnel whorecord the statements of complainants andregister the FIR.

The legal profession has its existing problems oftime delays, corruption and transparency, as isgenerally known, but also it is not alwayssensitive to the situation regarding honourkillings. Finding that honour killing can be usedas a method for mitigation of sentences tomurderers is one such example. It is necessary toestablish in the courts that it is not acceptableto use women for holding the man’s honour, and toemphasize that violence against women for anyreason should never be condoned in our society inany way.

A community outreach programme needs to bestarted to provide shelter and protection forwomen who run away from possible murders. Thecommunity cannot stay silent any longer. It isnecessary they not only provide input to amendand strengthen the law, but also to take part inthe proper implementation of this law. They mustalso be held liable or be obligated to report a

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case relating to honour killings, or even apotential case of this nature. The communityneeds to be engaged in constant and repeateddiscussion on the heinous nature of the crime ofhonour killing in order to bring about ameaningful social change within the Pakistanisociety.

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