- 23 incidents reported since Jan 1
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province has seen a sharp rise in honour killings in the ongoing year, in the wake of law enforcement agencies’ failure in implementation of the existing laws and the government’s new doctrine of settling the issues (disputes) before registration of first information reports (FIRs) (through tribal jirgas), Pakistan Today has learnt.
As many as 23 incidents involving violence against women have been reported in the province since the start of the year 2017 – reports received from parts of the province indicate – showing a depressing surge in the crime.
In these incidents, most of the victim women were not even owned by their families since they believed it would bring shame or disrespect to them, whereas the culprits, who are largely considered to be noble, are roaming unscathed.
Yet in some cases, the relatives of the victims were found defending the culprits before traditional jirgas and government-sponsored dispute resolution committees, functioning at the police station level.
In one such act, murder of Hina Shah Nawaz, an MPhil scholar from Kohat, is being defended by her family. Hina – the lone bread winner of her family including her widow sister – was working with a non-governmental organisation and was killed by her close relatives on February 6. Her family now wants the four accused set free who were arrested only after civil society organisations had pressured the law enforcers.
According to Rukhshanda Naz, a women rights activist, Hina was shot dead purely for grabbing her properties. She said that due to helplessness of the KP Commission on the Status of Women Rights, many honour killings were not reported and the culprits got acquitted. She said that this terrible surge in honour killings was a matter of great concern.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak had, in an interview with this scribe a couple of days ago, condemned the honour killings and termed them brutal and inhumane. “It is hard for us (the government) to intervene since majority of these cases are handled domestically,” Khattak had said.
“The Pakistan Tehreek Insaf (PTI) government is making attempts to counter these acts through dispute resolution committees (DRCs) but civil society believes that the DRCs are making complications rather than lending a helping-hand in penalising the culprits,” he had added.
Neelum Toru, the chairperson of the Commission on the Status of Women, said that she condemned so-called acts of honour killing and was determined to resist the crime at every forum. She said the commission had framed a draft of law and recommendations, but unfortunately due to reservations of the Council for Islamic Ideology (CII) it could not be passed for implementation. She said that now the reservations of the CII were being addressed and she was hopeful of a law for protection of women would soon be passed.
The Council of Islamic Ideology had rejected the pro-women bill prepared by the KP Commission on the Status of Women Rights, declaring it “un-Islamic”.