Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Senator Farhatullah Babar has said that although the recently passed anti-honour killing bill was an important legislation because it closed the door of acquittal through the law but there are still some issues that need to be addressed.
He expressed this while addressing the students at the Quaid-e Azam University (QAU) Islamabad on Thursday
Farhatullah Babar said that the positive side is that the new legislation ensures even if the entire family of the victim pardoned the murderer, the murderer will still face a mandatory 25 years jail term without any remission. But the downside is how to establish a murder as ‘honour’ killing.
If the perpetrator claimed that the murder was for other reasons it will make the crime compoundable and killer will be promptly pardoned under the Qisas law. A heavy burden has been placed on the shoulders of investigators, prosecutors and the judge to disprove the murderer and hold it as a case of ‘honour killing’.
He said that the underlying principle in the concept of Qisas is to save a human life under death sentence and not to condone the crime itself. So even if the compoundable provision of Qisas were to be applied it should be applicable only after the trial has commenced, the charges framed and proved in a court of law and the murderer has been awarded capital punishment and not before the completion of this cycle, he added.
Babar said that it is time the legislature and political parties gave a serious thought to the recommendations made last year by the National Commission on the Status of Women (NCS) proposing several amendments to the Qisas and Diyat law.
He said that according to an estimate over 2770 women were killed during the five year period from 2008, making an average of over 500 murders in a year in addition to un-reported cases and many men were also killed alongside women in the name of honour. He said that despite closing the door of acquittal through the law it will take quite some time to close the door through the society as well.
He also criticised the role of the Council of Islamic Ideology (CII) for publicly declaring that men may beat their wives, refuse to accept the DNA tests in rape cases and reject legislation against child marriages and forced conversions
To improve the bill it is important that we revisit the role and purpose of the CII and strengthen the Commission on Status of Women. The opposition from the religious lobby on grounds of ideology is also playing negative role in its full implementation.
The original anti honour murder bill that made honour murders totally non compoundable was approved unanimously across the party divide by the Senate Committee that was headed by a JUI-F senator.
Subsequently, it was also passed in the plenary session of the senate unanimously. JUI-F members including its stalwart the deputy chairman senate all voted for it. But objections were raised by them at the time when the bill came up before the joint session, he said.
Furthermore, the Protection of Pakistan Ordinance and the Anti-Terror laws also do not allow compounding the crime of murder he said. The rejection of the original anti honour killing bill therefore had nothing to do with ideology. Perhaps the opposition to it is motivated by pathological anti-woman bias of the ideology lobby, he said.