‘Honour victim’ in search of justice

A large number of girls in Pakistan, particularly in backward areas, have become the victim of honour killings due to which the focus of all the NGOs and legislators is towards protecting women, but no one seems interested to raise voice for the male members of the society who have been falsely implicated in honour cases and are going through critical phases of life.
Dad Hussain, 20, is a teenager who was also implicated in case of ‘honour’ (illicit relation) some five years ago. After being falsely involved in the matter, he had to leave his hometown and is facing the reverses of fortune for last several years, not alone but along with his family members including his sisters.
“In the third month of year 2007, Raees Liaqat, the landlord of my village, accused me of having illicit relation with her niece just to occupy the land of my father,” said Hussain, while talking to Pakistan Today.
He said his father had 70 acres of land in Khairpur district (Sindh) on which many landlords of the area were eying and played every tactics to grab it.
“But my father refused to sale the property due to which the feudal lord of our area take enmity with us and started threatening us,” he alleged, adding that after finding no way to force them, Raees opted to level charges of having unlawful relations.
Now, Hussain has no place to live and has been protesting against the injustices of society for the last several days by staging sit-in along with his family members in front of the National Press Club. He appealed to the rulers to save his life and get vacated his occupied land.
It is unfortunate that police also do not take any step in favour of the people allegedly involved in honour cases. Honour killings in Pakistan had compelled the legislators to legislate on the issue to stop practice. In 2004, a legislation to stop the honour killings was also materialise, but lack of data regarding the killings at the courts and reluctance of the people to comment on the occurrence creates many hurdles to implement the laws.
Regrettably most of the people are killed after getting being accused of adultery, while the life become miserable for the people succeeds in saving their lives.
Hussain is of the view that curse of feudalism should be removed from the society as it has ruined the poor, especially in Sindh and Balochistan. “Honour is only a pretext to murder the poor people for property and in many cases, for getting lighter punishment for heinous crimes,” he said.
Usually in cases of women, honour killing means; “If a husband kills his wife for alleged sexual misbehaviour and the alleged lover gets away, the latter has to pay the compensation, for the wife that was lost and for his own life, which was spared. Often, the dead woman’s alleged lover hands over a sister to the husband, in addition to a larger amount of money.
Aurat Foundation National Coordinator of Wasim Wagha told Pakistan Today that mostly, the women become victim of honour killings and there were very rare cases found in which the men were implicated in such case. He, however, added that his organisation had proposed legislation on the brutal custom for both men and women.