ISLAMABAD, July 26: Zakir Hussain Shah, a resident of Bara Kau locality who had murdered his daughter last month, will be absolved of the charge as his wife and son in their capacity as legal heirs of the deceased have agreed to pardon him under the Qisas and Diyat law.
The Qisas and Diyat law, which was enforced in 1990 on the insistence of the then chief justice Mohammad Afzal Zullah, is being massively abused. Under the law, murdering a family member virtually carries no punishment as the other family members have the right to pardon the killer.
The Qisas law has changed the nature of the crime. Before the introduction of this law, murdering a person was crime against the state but now it is against the person. The heirs have powers to pardon the murderer.
Zakir had slit the throat of 18-year-old Sabiha on June 26 at Dhoke Khayam on suspicion that she had become pregnant. The matter was reported to the Bara Kau police by her maternal uncle, Ibrar Hussain Shah. Ibrar had stated that Zakir had murdered Sabiha after tying her with charpoy.
Zakir disappeared from the scene with the knife and later obtained pre-arrest bail from the sessions court of Islamabad. He has since returned home and is now living with his wife and son. He had submitted a compromise deed on behalf of his wife and son.
The police presented the challan in the court of the district and sessions judge, and the case is slated to be taken up on Saturday. The court would have no option except to verify from the heirs whether they had pardoned him or not. If the response is in affirmative, the matter ends there and the murderer father would be a free man like he was one month back.
The main argument for the enforcement of the Qisas law was that it would have deterrence effects on society and the homicide would decrease.
Twelve years after its enforcement, the law is being misused to the extent that people now commit homicide with impunity, especially in family.
Justice Munir A. Sheikh, senior puisne judge of the Supreme Court, has been observing time and again that after the introduction of the Qisas law, the crime rate has increased. Recently, he asked Jamaat-i-Islami lawyers during the course of Riba case to state whether the murders had decreased. When the counsel had no answer, Justice Sheikh said his experience as a judge of the high court and the apex court was that now people murdered with impunity.
In another case, a had killed his four sisters in Mardan when they demanded share in the ancestral property. The mother, who was the legal heir of the deceased girls, pardoned the son and the case ended then and there.
Similarly, a man in Sargodha opened fire on his family members, resulting in death of his two daughters. His wife and other daughters, wounded in the shooting, pardoned the murderer as they were the legal heirs of the deceased.
