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MULTAN, Oct 26: Enhancing the sentence of a double-murder convict in an ‘honour’ killing case, a division bench of Lahore High Court has pointed out room for legislation specific to it.
The bench comprising Justice Tasadduq Husain Jilani and Justice Raja Muhammad Sabir observed in the judgment: “It would be a significant step forward if the government at least makes up its mind and introduces legislation that makes ‘Karo-Kari’ premeditated murder.”
The bench set aside the decision of the Rajanpur trial court which had awarded seven years imprisonment to one Abdul Hamid. According to the prosecution, the convict had shot dead his niece Hafeezaan, 15, and a boy, Abid Husain, 16, on Oct 19, 1996, on suspicion of illicit intimacy.
The bench enhanced the sentence to death on both counts and ordered payment of Rs100,000 in compensation to the legal heirs of each victim. Default on payment would require imprisonment for six months on both counts.
The court also expressed concern over Karo-Kari killings in Sindh saying, “according to figures compiled by a non-government organization, 129 people were reported killed in the name of so called honour killing in the first six months of this year.
“In at least three cases, children as young as three were the victims,” it added.
“We have had a string of government functionaries, ministers, judges and senior police and law enforcement officials saying publicly that legislation against ‘honour’ killing needed to be toughened”, the court recalled.
“Following this, one would have expected certain changes in the law but unfortunately none came”, it said.
BAHADURPUR INCIDENT: The Anti-Terrorism Court No 1, Multan, has started hearing the Bahadurpur village firing case in which a villager was killed a few months back.
Peer Bakhsh was killed in ‘police firing’ when villagers staged a protest demonstration against long power shutdown in Bahadurpur, a village of Jalalpur Pirwala tehsil, Multan district.
Press reports published at the time of the incident suggested that police might have opened fire at the crowd when the crowd stopped a police vehicle but the police had said that the people from the crowd had fired at Peer Bakhsh.
The then SHO of Jalalpur Pirwala police station, Saifullah, who had registered the case as complainant against some members of the crowd, recorded his statement before the court on Friday.
However, his statement was not completely recorded and court adjourned the case for Nov 8, 2001.—APP
