KARACHI: Legislators, senior officials of law enforcement, members of the legal fraternity and civil society activists have agreed that reforms in criminal justice system, implementation of law in true spirit and strong writ of the state are imperative to deal with the menace of ‘honour’ killing or karo kari in Sindh.

At a consultative meeting titled ‘Honour killing — a crime against humanity; reasons and challenges in stopping the menace’ organised by Sindh Human Rights Commission on Friday, they spoke at length about the reasons behind the brutal trend and discussed way out to provide justice to victims and their aggrieved families.

Member National Assembly and head of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) human rights cell Nafisa Shah as the keynote speaker at the meeting said that modernisation and reforms within the state and justice system were required to deal with issue of honour killings.

“The case [of honour killings] does not exist outside the state, the courtroom is implicated, law is implicated and criminal justice system is deeply implicated,” she said. “The idea of restorative justice becomes strong when investigation systems and criminal justice systems are weak. Even though the aspect of culture and customs is present when one talks about honour killings, our criminal justice system is also in dire need [of] reforms and that the so-called garb of Islamisation has had a lot of impact on our criminal justice procedures.”

She also shared about her extensive work on honour killings when she was a journalist and later when she was pursuing her PhD. She said that the anthropological aspect of the issue was something she wanted to explore.

Former chief justice of Sindh High Court retired Justice Shaiq Usmani said that karo kari had a cultural aspect. It was about restraining women and not giving them independence, he said and added that there was a need for a different law.

He said that an anti-honour killing law should be made to separately deal with this heinous crime and a dedicated commission or institution must be formed to deal with cases related to honour killings.

Abdul Khaliq Shaikh, the DIG headquarters of Sindh police, while delivering his presentation said that Sindh police recently conducted a research on honour killings in the province. The numbers, even though alarming, were less than those recorded last year, he added.

“In the first quarter of 2019, the number of cases reported to Sindh police were 65. In 2018, we recorded 113 cases. A total of 50 women were killed in the name of honour this year, while 28 men were also murdered following the result of honour killing,” he said.

Former chairperson and present member of the National Commission for Human Rights Anis Haroon said that the issue of honour killings was not new. Every other day society witnessed a new wave of honour killings.

“The entire belt where honour killings are prevalent should be declared no-go areas for women. An emergency should be declared to deal with cases of violence against women in the vulnerable region,” she said reflecting on the urgency required to deal with the issue.

SHRC chairperson retired Justice Majida Razvi spoke about the suffering of women and young girls within the province, as well as the way they were treated in the name of honour.

She said that the issue of honour killing was a matter of urgency, which needed to be dealt with in consultation with all stakeholders.

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2019