'Honour Killings' in Pakistan and Compliance of ... - Aurat Foundation

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in the media. Four districts were chosen as a sample group. The chosen districts were: (i) Naseerabad, Balochistan (ii) Ghotki, Sindh (iii) Nowshera, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (iv) Gujrat, Punjab The districts were chosen with reference to PDM reports for their high incidence of honour killings or, as, in the case of Nowshera, the extremely low reported incidents, but high numbers reported by word of mouth. Four researchers were hired from the four provinces, with the main focus to not only collect the relevant data, but also to conduct interviews in the different areas to try to ascertain whether any attitudinal change had occurred in their respective regions. The interviews were conducted with community members, police officers, lawyers, the victims’ families, the families of the perpetrators and the perpetrators themselves. Limitations and Problems Faced From the onset of the project a number of obstacles immediately presented themselves, only to be followed by more. These are summarised below. There is a serious lack of consolidated data available. The researchers faced much difficulty in collecting data from the different police stations. In a number of police stations, the First Information Reports (FIRs) were not categorised; in a number of others they were all written by hand in different files. Nor is there a standard format used. Researchers had to search through the papers to find the information required and then try to consolidate it for the purposes of this study. There is no concept of typing or printing complaints, FIRs or reports. Due to lack of resources, most of 39
the police stations are not even equipped with computers, much less personnel who are familiar with their usage. It was only because of the persistence of the researchers that the data was recovered, but it had to be consolidated mostly by them. This is not to say all police stations had the same problem, but this issue was widespread. Apart from the lack of consolidated data, there is a huge problem with storage of the data. All the papers are placed in files and put in cupboards, making it difficult for people to recover them. This issue with storage is common across other sectors as well, including the courts. Without any other copies of a number of the reports, this led to disaster in a large number of districts, including Gujrat, where due to the floods in 2010 large amounts of data was lost. Since the only manner of recording was by hand written complaints, reports etc, these papers are now lost for good. As a result, Gujrat data was not available from before 2008. Other districts, which had high statistics on honour killings, were perforce not included in this report because of the loss of data. The categorisation of FIRs also presents a problem. For example, in the district of Nowshera, there is officially not a single case of honour killings registered, despite cases that have been heard of through word of mouth 43 . Apparently, when cases of honour killings are reported, they are immediately lodged under Section 302 of the Pakistan Penal Code, i.e. 43 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 to Islamabad. The victim was rumoured to be having an affair with his uncle’s wife. Despite warnings the two had continued to stay in contact, resulting in the murder of the victim by his uncle. The victim’s family didn’t report the case to the police, and compromised with the perpetrator’s family, as it was their family matter and the victim’s family believed that their son was guilty. 40
Page 2 and 3: A Pilot Study on: ‘Honour Killing
Page 4: Table of Contents Preface 1 Introdu
Page 8 and 9: Preface Elimination of all negative
Page 10 and 11: the nature and extent of its compli
Page 12 and 13: Introduction The Criminal Law (Amen
Page 14: formalised by the State and ‘lega
Page 17 and 18: Gender is one of the organisational
Page 19 and 20: their rights were achieved on paper
Page 21 and 22: elatives), in effect excluding all
Page 24 and 25: 3. “Honour Killings”: their Pre
Page 26 and 27: patrilineage 17 . From this follows
Page 28 and 29: compensation negotiated to end a di
Page 30: divorced or excommunicated, an act
Page 33 and 34: Article 340 of the Jordanian Penal
Page 35 and 36: monitor women’s movements and kil
Page 37 and 38: mitigation, compensation for the he
Page 39 and 40: The discretion of the court to deci
Page 41 and 42: down for such cases. This applies t
Page 43 and 44: to properly determine the issue bef
Page 45: Table 1: Number & Percentages of Ca
Page 49 and 50: Findings of the Research The findin
Page 51 and 52: When asked about the lack of filing
Page 53 and 54: Gujrat Gujrat also shows a similar
Page 55 and 56: community. Perhaps this has been on
Page 57 and 58: eporting it will do when registerin
Page 59 and 60: Jillani reiterated Justice Abbasi
Page 61 and 62: death and it was subsequently disco
Page 63 and 64: Lahore High Court The Lahore High C
Page 65 and 66: meditation falling under the defini
Page 67 and 68: for conservative and biased interpr
Page 70 and 71: 6. Perspective of the Community Whi
Page 72 and 73: mindset and existing confining soci
Page 74 and 75: even if cases are brought to them,
Page 76 and 77: Role of the Community It is general
Page 78 and 79: court settlement is preferred. Such
Page 80 and 81: 7. Conclusion and Main Findings It
Page 82 and 83: 6. There are also problems with the
Page 84 and 85: 12. These precedents are not necess
Page 86 and 87: hold through these illegal forms of
Page 88: 24. The police can play a very nega
Page 91: The police system is in dire need o

'Honour Killings' in Pakistan and Compliance of ... - Aurat Foundation

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