KARACHI: Elimination of parallel judicial system urged: Moot on karo-kari
By S. Raza Hassan
KARACHI, Nov 27: Experts at the concluding session of an international conference held jirgas responsible for honour killings and urged to eliminate these parallel judicial systems, saying that jirgas should be banned and treated as an offence under the law.
The three-day moot to address the issue of honour killings, concluded on Saturday, was organized by the British Council Pakistan.
According to a handout issued following the three-day moot, the participants sought further amendment to Section 311 of the Pakistan Penal Code which had earlier been amended declaring that killing of any woman in the name of honour should be treated as Fasad Fil Arz (spreading mischief in the land/country).
The recommendations called for substituting the term “may” with “should” enabling mandatory sentence despite a compromise.
The handout called upon the state to provide on priority basis inexpensive and expeditious justice in the cases of honour killing in accordance with the Article 37(d) of the constitution.
It was also recommended to implement the law through clarification of the said law to reduce ambiguity and encourage the judiciary to make similar efforts to integrate gender training.
While welcoming the inclusion by the police of the human rights training programme including honour crimes for all the new recruits, the recommendations acknowledged the media for its courageous step forward to report such crimes.
The recommendations in question also called for encouraging research and development on the cases honour killings by the media for increasing public awareness, moreover, the media should show sensitivity towards the victims while reporting such incidents, it was further stressed.
It was further suggested that scholars of Islamic laws be involved at every level of debate and legislative deliberations to eliminate the menace of honour killings.
It was also recommended that Islamic scholars, academics, police, judiciary, feudal, politicians and members of the civil society organizations should be invited and encouraged to play an active role towards the elimination of the issue.
Finally, it was suggested to encourage the follow up of the draft recommendations of this conference at all levels as a process, and urged to develop a victim protection support mechanism.
During the three-day conference, group discussions on different aspects like how to improve judicial education on legal issues to prevent honour killings, how to attract political support for legislative change and how to engage the jurists on Islamic law to solve the issue of honour killings were held.
In addition video documentaries, panel discussions on the role of media were also screened and held. Poster exhibition from schools in the rural areas of Sindh and Southern Punjab on the anti-honour killing campaign was also held by the Human Rights Education Forum, Sindh.
Besides, publications, case studies, published articles and photographs by Inter-press communications during the awareness raising campaign in Sindh and Southern Punjab were also put on display during the conference.
Speaking as chief guest at the concluding session, the Sindh Minister for Women Development, Dr Saeeda Malik, said that at least two women would be inducted in the Public Service Commission.
Dr Malik further stated that the induction of at least two women in the Public Service Commission had already been approved. Induction of more women is also expected, she added.
She further said that we would be coming up with a very enthusiastic project called gender reform action plan through which we would be addressing the public employment of girls also.
The minister further pointed out that career counselling centres in varsities, colleges and schools would be set up.
Speaking on the occasion, Nayyar H. Haider, Additional IG Investigation, Sindh Police, observed that the criminal justice system had failed to prove as an effective deterrent against the perpetrators of honour killing, as karo-kari had continued unabated because it was regarded more as a custom than crime.
Referring to the historical background of honour killings in the subcontinent, he said that following the annexation of Sindh into the British India, Sir Charles Napier had issued a proclamation warning people against killing their women.
Part of the proclamation reads: “I will have the matter investigated by a court of justice, and the offender who kills his wife shall be punished according to his crime.”
He said that Pakistan had been witnessing an alarming increase in the menace of honour killing with 4,383 incidents having been reported over the past four years alone.
Sindh has topped the list as a total of 2,228 such cases had been reported officially during the period Jan 2001-Dec 2004. However, the number of such cases were least reported from Balochistan where 287 incidents had occurred during the past four years.
According to the data presented by the provincial head of investigation, a total of 758 cases of honour killings were reported in Pakistan during 2001; 1,015 cases in 2002; 1,261 cases in 2003 and the number of such cases touched a record high in 2004 in which some 1,349 women were killed in the name of so-called honour.
Responding to a question, Mr Haider said that before 2001 the incidents of honour killings were taken as ordinary murders.
He further said that women were the main victims of honour killing, mainly including those seeking divorce, who had been raped, who refused to yield to family pressures and in order to extract revenge from feuding opponents.
Mr Haider informed the gathering that there were several laws to protect women. He said that the Constitution of Pakistan in several articles guaranteed gender equality. However, he spoke about some discriminatory laws and said that the government was adopting various strategies for victim support.
He said that the National Commission on Status of Women had mandated to review the existing discriminatory laws. Law on honour killing enacted, crises centres, shelters and help lines were established.
Mr Haider was of the view that the state should assume the responsibility to uphold human rights and provide security to the life and property of all its citizens without any discrimination.
Gender bias must be eradicated from the state machinery and discriminatory laws should be re-examined and should be done away with, he added saying that police should be sensitized and it should register cases on behalf of the state where the complainants are not forthcoming.
Prof Jahanara Huq, vice-president of Women for Women, who came here from Bangladesh in her paper highlighted violence against women in Bangladesh.
She explained different kinds of violence against women including dowry, rape, domestic violence, incest, abduction/trafficking, acid violence, violence related to marriage, campus violence, and feudal practices like medical abuse, media violence and sexual harassment at workplaces.
Prof Huq said that Bangladesh had no such honour killing but had grievous, gruesome gender violence in its various dimensions.
She said that 75 per cent of such murders were due to dowry.
“Although anti-dowry law has been passed but it is not at all effective due to various socio-economic constraints and legal flaws,” she observed.
Prof Huq said that rapes in Bangladesh were so common that it extended from children of three to five years up to older women.
She said that trafficking leads to prostitution or sexual slavery. “Every year about 20,000 women are abducted and taken to brothels in Kolkata, Delhi and the Middle East,” she added.
However, she observed: “Bangladesh has no dearth of laws to prevent violence against women and children but crimes continues unabated and is on the increase to such an extent that thousands of women are exterminated each year by the acts of violence. This makes applicability and efficiency of the law questionable under public conscience.”
Dr M. Ishaque Sarhandi, Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, DUHS said that according to the government and independent researchers estimated that over 4,000 women had fallen victim to this cruel custom of karo-kari in Pakistan over the last six years.
Earlier, the Director of British Council Karachi, Marcus Gilbert, and Deputy Director, Samina R. Khan, also spoke.
