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

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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 them as. ‘Kari’ and once that pronouncement comes that girl is treated as ‘Kari’. In this part of the country the girls are being treated as cattle, just like buffaloes and goats, and the girls have no right in such situations on the pattern of animals as the animals have no rights. Therefore, such girls who are being declared ‘Kari’ are not required to be heard in those matters. In order to prevent such crimes the Courts of Law should have to take judicial notice while trying such heinous crimes.” The Justice went on to comment on the procedure and environment of the court, noting that mother and sisters of the victims seemed to be under harassment and felt insecure, therefore he directed that the trial court should ensure that the case is conducted in “an environment of complete freedom of mind of prosecution witnesses and to provide legal protection to the prosecution witnesses.” The spirit displayed in these judgments seems to indicate that given the opportunity the SHC would potentially provide hard and appropriately harsh judgments against perpetrators and supporters of honour killings. While the SHC does not seem to have had the opportunity to preside over too many cases reaching this stage, it will be interesting to note whether it carries forward this spirit and translates it into its decisions and judgments. Balochistan High Court As mentioned earlier, there seem to be no reported honour killings cases in the Balochistan High Court since 2004. 55
Lahore High Court The Lahore High Court (LHC), on the other hand is seen to give a number of contradictory decisions that both condemn and seemingly support honour killings. In a 2006 case 60 , the court gave a strong statement against honour killings. While recognising that grave and sudden provocation was not an accepted motive for suspicion of illicit relationship, and therefore the contention of ‘ghairat’ as a mitigating circumstance was not sustainable, 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” and that “honour-killing was violative of fundamental rights enshrined in Articles 8(I) & 9 of the Constitution.” The LHC proved to be vigilant while recognising that an accused could not prove his pleas of 'ghairat ', 'self-defence' and 'sudden provocation' as said pleas appeared to be an afterthought story 61 . In a 2009 case, Justice Tariq Shamim notes that, “ ‘Ghairat’ has been excluded from being considered as an extenuating circumstance for awarding a lesser sentence 62 .” However, despite these positive judgments, there exist a larger number of negative judgments, which are discussed below. There is a large amount of case law available from the Lahore High Court over the years that continues to provide grave and sudden provocation as 60 Bashir v. The State, 2006 PCRLG 1945 61 The State v. Muhammad Sarwar, 2007 YLR 74 62 Kamal Shah v. The State, 2009 P Cr. L J 547 56
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 and 46: Table 1: Number & Percentages of Ca
Page 47 and 48: the police stations are not even eq
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: death and it was subsequently disco
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
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'Honour Killings' in Pakistan and Compliance of ... - Aurat Foundation

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