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

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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 59
for conservative and biased interpretation. This is evidenced by judgements given in a large number of cases in the LHC. These judgments are a reflection of how the precedents being set by the Supreme Court are being interpreted in lower courts. While the Supreme Court may have attempted to lay down a few specifications before acceptance of the plea of grave and sudden provocation, but clearly it is being translated as an acceptance of murder in the name of honour. In fact, apart from finding ways to circumvent the Supreme Court, a number of judgments do not even refer to the plea of provocation, but instead simply state ‘ghairat’ as an extenuating circumstance. The Sindh High Court seems to be the only court that appears to be developing a revolutionary and progressive attitude in this regard, as exemplified in its strong statements. Nevertheless, due to a low number of honour killing cases reaching the High Court, it is not yet possible to see how far the SHC will go in perpetuating this spirit while hearing such cases. The lack of case law in both Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is extremely worrying and also dangerous. As evidenced by the FIRs and media in Balochistan, such cases do occur, but the question is what happened to them In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the problem of general acceptance of the crime by society and low reporting is also reflected in the data collected. The questions that need to be asked are: What should the role of the court be after the law has been passed Should courts adopt a more path breaking tone and attitude While the plea of provocation is an accepted plea in cases of murder across the world, does the specific crime of honour 60
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 and 62: death and it was subsequently disco
Page 63 and 64: Lahore High Court The Lahore High C
Page 65: meditation falling under the defini
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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