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

occur. However, this is the stage where a re-introduction of the law can
be pursued in order to ensure convictions of the perpetrators.
The Main Findings
1. The Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2004 made a number of
changes to the existing legislation to include the offence of
‘honour killing’ and deal with issues which are ancillary matters,
such as stating that the murderer cannot be the wali, making
illegal the exchange of women as badal-i-sulh, making changes to
police procedures as to investigation, etc.
2. However, the 2004 Act did not remove the option of Qisas and
Diyat, leaving one of the biggest loopholes in the law, whereby
the majority of perpetrators are allowed o go free.
3. The methodology of recording data is flawed. There is no
standardised format used; all the registration and record keeping is
done on paper by hand, resulting in data being easily misplaced.
Due to lack of resources and capable personnel, there are none or
few computers given to the police stations for the recording of
data.
4. Storage is another major issue, as all the data is paper-based and
filed and placed in drawers and cupboards making it difficult to
recover, much less find what one is looking for.
5. There is a lack of consolidated and accurate data on honour
killings. Contributory factors include absence of proper reporting,
general misreporting as when honour killings cases are filed under
another ‘motive’ etc.
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