Honour killings in Pakistan: Enough is enough!

The year 2016 had good tidings for women in Pakistan at its start. Passage of a bill on women's protection against violence by the legislature in the Punjab province handed them something to cheer about. And it seemed that other provinces, using their powers devolved to them in 2010 through a constitutional change, would happily take a cue from the country's most populous province and have such an instrument of theirs as well. Instead, as the year wore away, it was back to normal; violence against women being rampant and the authorities kowtowing to the patriarchal mindset misinterpreted as religion by some politically manipulative groups, and thus keeping in limbo the law that might have given them some solace.
Other modes of violence against women aside, recent months have seen women being murdered quite frequently in what is called "honour killing" to justify their odious crime and cloud culpability. According to the United Nations, the term risks "reinforcing discriminatory misperceptions that women embody the 'honour' of the male and the community". The violence seeks to punish women for seeking to exercise independent choice, for defying not only the wishes of their families but social expectation - for daring to be free.
That such killings are premeditated is evident from the slaying of a pregnant woman by her family in Gujranwala because she married against family members' wishes three years ago. In a case earlier this month, a teen was burned to death in Lahore by her mother and brother for marrying against their wishes. A dozen leaders of a remote village of Abbottabad grabbed a teenage girl from her home, bound her and set her on fire in a van who they thought had helped a couple to elope. An edict by an influential group of 40 Pakistani religious leaders called the Sunni Ittehad Council said such revenge killings constituted an "unlawful, unconstitutional, undemocratic, unethical and unjustifiable act that must be stopped by the state at any cost". Such incidents are not exclusive to any one religion, however. A Christian man beat his teenage sister to death with a large wooden stick, reportedly because he didn't want her to marry her Christian neighbour.
Violence against women is rampant in Pakistan, according to the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. It said that in the first five months of 2016, as many as 212 women were killed in the name of "honour." According to the watchdog's report, there were more than 1,100 "honour killings" in 2015. Such extrajudicial attacks almost always target women. 1,096 women died in honour killings in 2015, compared to 88 men. That total represents an increase from 2014, when 1,005 women were killed, and 2013, when the commission reported 869 such deaths.
The country's law literally allows killers to get away with murdering the women in their families in letting the family of a murder victim to pardon the perpetrator. This practice is often used in cases of "honour" killings, where the victim and perpetrator belong to the same family, in order to evade prosecution. But legislative changes are only a part of the solution. The 2004 Criminal Law (Amendment) Act made "honour" killings a criminal offence, but the law remains poorly enforced. It is left to a judge's discretion to decide whether to impose a prison sentence when other relatives of the victim forgive the killer - a loophole, which critics say remains exploited. A man accused of murdering his mother was released from prison thanks to a family pardon. He went on to murder two of his young sisters in cold blood earlier this year.
In February this year, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif vowed to eradicate the "evil" of "honour killings". "Anyone who does this must be punished and punished very severely," said Sharif speaking after the premiere at the Prime Minister's House of a short documentary about "honour killings". Its director, Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, went on to win an Oscar. "Changing the law is something that needs to be done at the earliest possibility." But the promise is yet to be kept. Lest the year 2016 ticks off without the government acting on the menace! Without changes in the law, such crimes will continue to proliferate.
Pakistani authorities should urgently investigate and prosecute those responsible for the recent jump in such killings in the country without bowing to pressure from local, political and religious leaders. They should plug the judicial system's loopholes. They should also ensure that safe emergency shelter, protection, and support is available to any woman or girl who may be at risk from her family.
The society too needs to address the widespread and pervasive cultural biases women face that are often the motivating factor behind violence against women. Not considered independent, equal members of society even in Pakistan's most advanced urban settings, women find their fate tied to their (invariably) male guardian's fortune throughout their life. These cultural biases may be the hardest to overcome, but social awareness facilitated by the educational institutions and the media is the only way "honour killings" will gain widespread public disapproval. Enough should now be enough!
Waqar Mustafa is a Pakistan-based print, broadcast and online journalist