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

In a 2008 case 71 the court stated, “As the murder has been committed out
of suspicion of immorality, so award of lesser sentence to the appellant
was proper and highly justified.”
In a 2009 case 72 the court noted that the ‘possibility’ that the accused may
have committed murder due to ghairat cannot be ignored, therefore, the
“awarding of capital sentence is a harsh order and as such the death
penalty awarded to Muhammad Akhtar appellant by the learned trial
Court is converted to life imprisonment.”
As a result of this jurisprudence of law from the LHC, even a judge like
Justice Pervaiz Inayat Malik stated in a 2009 case 73 that though he was
not “persuaded to subscribe to this view for the simple reason that in the
name of ‘ghairat’ and sudden provocation, license cannot be given to any
one including near relatives for committing murder of citizens of
Pakistan....” the court had to follow precedence and follow the law, and,
as in this case, had to allow for accepting a reduction in sentence as
‘ghairat’ is accepted by the LHC as a mitigating circumstance.
(ii)
Analysis of Pakistani Reported Case Law
As is seen by the case law discussed above, ‘honour’ or ‘ghairat’ is
clearly still accepted as a mitigating circumstance for reduced sentencing
for murders under the guise of honour. In a large number of cases, the
plea of grave and sudden provocation is still used.
While the Supreme Court has clearly accepted the use of this plea
depending on the circumstance of the case, this leaves open a wide gap
71 Muhammad Farooq v. The State, 2008 Y L R 2319
72 Muhammad Akhtar, 2009 YLR 1092
73 Qaisar Ayub v. The State, 2009 P Cr. L J 1148
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