25.08.2013 In the name of honour
Four recent cases of honour killings in KP call for removal of loopholes from the law and amendment in provisions which go in favour of alleged killers
By Akhtar Amin
Despite hard work of numerous legislators and human rights activists, cases of ‘honour killings’ keep coming up. Four honour killing cases were reported in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa within one and a half month.
In three honour killing cases, fathers were the killers of their daughters along with their boyfriends and others. The first case was reported at Mardan district on August 11, 2013. According to first information report lodged at Ghari Kapora police station, one Abdul Zaman, son of Abdul Manan and resident of Ghari Daulatzai shot dead his young daughter Afshan along with her lover Rizwanullah when he found the boy at his house along with his daughter.
After killing his daughter and her boyfriend, the accused went to the police station and offered his arrest along with the pistol. The police booked him in double murder case.
The second honour killing case took place in Dera Ismail Khan on July 27. A man killed his daughter and her alleged boyfriend after he found them in a room inside his house in Kathar Yanwalla Mohala.
A city police official, Ghulam Abbas said that the father came to the police station following the incident and confessed his crime. Abdur Rauf Khattak told the city police he woke up to go to the washroom during the night when he saw a light switched on in one of the rooms. When he entered the room, he saw his 15-year-old daughter, Sabina, sitting with an unidentified boy. Seeing this, the father got furious and killed them both.
The accused said he suffocated the boy to death using a pillow and strangled his daughter using a rope. The boy was later identified as Asad Abbas, 20, a resident of Gass Mandi Mohala. The fatha is currently being held in a lock-up at the city police station and a murder case has been registered against him.
The third honour killing case was reported from Swabi district on June 26, 2013, in which Gul Rehan allegedly shot his daughter along with her husband and father-in-law in Chauta Lahor tehsil.
According to Chauta Lahor police official Fazal Malik, police were informed of a shootout in Bazaar Kallay that Sabz Ali reported Gul Rehan, Mustafa and Yousaf, residents of Manki, allegedly barged into his house and opened fire at Rehan’s daughter Shaista, Ali’s brother Sadiq and father Abdur Rasheed, killing them on the spot.
Sabz Ali explained that Shaista had eloped with his brother Sadiq three years ago and they got married in Karachi. The couple had recently returned to their village when her father allegedly killed them both along with Ali’s father Abdur Rasheed. The three accused escaped after the incident.
Earlier, Rehan had demanded the family return his daughter to him, said Ali. According to him, Abdur Rasheed refused and replied Shaista was now his son’s wife. Ali alleged Rehan had then threatened to kill the entire family.
In the fourth honour killing case on August 16, in Swabi district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, three people, including a woman and her daughter were killed in the name of ‘honour’ in Kala village.
The Swabi City Police Official Akhtar Syed Ghani Asghar, a former army serviceman, gave his arrest to the police and confessed he suspected his wife Rukhsar Bibi of having an illicit relationship with Inayat Rahman who lived in the neighbourhood.
To confirm his suspicion, Asghar told his wife and daughter Zahra that he was going to Rawalpindi for some work, but instead went and hid on the roof armed with an AK-47. Around 12:30am, Rahman knocked at the gate and his wife let him in, Asghar claimed.
When the two were in the garden, Asghar opened fire on them. Hearing the gunshots, Zahra also came out of her room, where she was sleeping, and was shot accidently, Asghar said.
All three were killed on the spot after which the accused handed himself over to the police. The AK-47 was seized from him.
Legal experts dealing with criminal cases say that the Pakistan Penal Code does not contain any provision which can mitigate the offence of murder committed in the name of honour. The PPC was enacted in 1860. Earlier, Section 300 of the PPC contained a provision of ‘grave and sudden provocation’ that provided lesser punishment for crimes committed in the name of honour.
To check honour killing the parliament enacted the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act 2005, through which amendments were made in some provisions of the PPC and the Criminal Procedure Code.
For the first time a definition of honour-related crimes has been incorporated in the PPC, which now provides: “Offence committed in the name or on the pretext of honour means an offense committed in the name or on the pretext of Karo Kari, Sipah Kari or similar other customs or practices.”
Following this amendment the courts are now bound to sentence to death or life imprisonment a person after he/she is proved guilty of murder on the pretext of honour. However, still in different cases the courts adopt lenient view towards perpetrators.
An amendment has also been made in Section 311 PPC dealing with the principle of Fasad fil Arz (mischief on earth) and the courts have been empowered to sentence a person to over 10-year imprisonment in honour-related offenses. The offense shall also be considered as Fasad fil Arz. That provision has also been rarely invoked by courts.
Legal circles believe that the legislature should remove loopholes from the law and amend provisions which go in favour of alleged killers. They believe that existing provisions of the law should also be fully implemented.
The HRCP in its annual report 2011 mentioned that at least 943 women were killed in the name of honour. The report stated the purported reasons given for this were illicit relations in 595 cases and the demand to marry of own choice in 219 cases. In 180 cases the murderers were brothers and in 226 cases husbands of the victims. Only 20 women killed in the name of honour were reported to have been provided medical aid before they died.
Advocate Noor Alam Khan said that some segments of the society still support this practice. He said there is difference of opinion on this issue, which is evident from judgements of the superior courts.
The lawyer said that in some cases the courts favoured the accused on the grounds of “grave and sudden provocation”, whereas in other cases the courts didn’t accept this ground for an honour-related murder. He said the provision of “grave and sudden provocation” had been omitted from the law, but the judges of superior courts often extended concession to the accused on the same grounds.
The Aurat Foundation conducted a study on honour killings in Pakistan in 2012 which showed that many cases were not reported to the police and if reported, were not classified as honour killings. The study said the courts usually gave verdicts in favour of the killers by invoking the provision of “grave and sudden provocation”.