KARACHI, Aug 27: A high-level meeting held at the Governor’s House, with Governor Dr Ishratul Ibad in the chair, finalized the draft for amendment in the PPC to curb the practice of Karo Kari killings.

The meeting was attended by Home Advisor Aftab Shaikh, IGP Syed Kamal Shah, secretaries of home and law departments, the CCPO, the advocate general, the additional advocate general, the principal secretary and the AIG.

Calling for initiating efforts to eliminate Karo Kari, the governor said that parliamentarians should also be involved in these efforts, besides creating awareness against the abominable practice through various forums.

The governor noted that Karo Kari murders—killings in the name of honour- had been rampant in the province for the past several decades, and in most parts of the province, people considered it a matter of pride to commit that brutality.

The governor maintained that under section 300 of PPC the act murder had been defined as ‘Qatl-i-Aamad’, and committing murder with any intention, including karo Kari, or on the pretext of ‘Ghairat’ was Qatl-i-Amad, which was punishable by death under section 302 of PPC.

Section 302 of PPC says: “Whoever commits Qatl-i-Amad shall, subject to the provisions of this charge, be: (a) punished with death as Qisas, (b) punished with death or imprisonment for life as Ta’azir, having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, if the proof in either of the forms specified in section 304 is not available, or (c) punished with imprisonment of either description for a term which may extend to twenty five years, where, according to the injunctions of Islam, the punishment of Qisas is not applicable.”

The governor said that to curb the crime it was necessary to take extraordinary measures by making suitable amendments to PPC.

The draft finalized at the meeting will now be sent to the federal Government for further action.

It recommends that:

(i) in section 300 PPC following explanation may be added:

“Qatl-e-Amad shall include, amongst others, murder on the pretext of ‘Karo Kari’, ‘Siahkari’ or ‘Ghairat’.

(ii) In section 302 PPC, after clause (c), the following new clause (d) may be added:

(d) whoever commits, abets, encourages, induces commission of Qatal-i-Amad on the pretext of Karo kari, Siahkari or Ghairat or recognizes such murders as an honour killing, shall also be punished with death.—APP