EVEN the busiest and largest thoroughfare in a huge and bustling city like Karachi is not unaffected by the abhorrent crime of ‘honour’ killing. While in this case, the targeted woman, Kausar Waseem, survived the attempt on her life, the man for whom she had left everything was killed in a gun attack allegedly carried out by members of her family. Waseem Ejaz was killed on Monday when the couple was returning from attending a case hearing at the Sindh High Court where Kausar had refused to be coaxed into leaving her husband of choice and going back to her family. The couple had tied the knot some months ago without the support of Kausar’s family who had registered a case in Hyderabad claiming she had been kidnapped. The couple had gone to court to have the FIR quashed but it cost Waseem his life.

The impunity with which the attack was carried out in broad daylight on Sharea Faisal, where there is constant traffic, reveals just how deep-seated this sinister mindset is and how the perpetrators tend to give little thought to the possibility of being caught and punished for their heinous crimes. Regrettably, despite the amendments made in the honour killing law in 2016 to include harsher punishments, such crimes remain frequent and show no sign of abating. A study carried out by the Sindh Police last year revealed that nearly 770 people, 510 of them women, fell victim to ‘honour’ killings between 2014 and 2019. Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch estimates that at least 1,000 women are killed every year in the country on the pretext of honour. It is not enough to merely pass laws unless the state shows determination to enforce them in letter and spirit. The feeling of certainty that they will not be caught or punished for their crimes drives men to kill in the name of upholding patriarchal traditions. It is a shame that the state refrains from acting on the laws of the country.

Published in Dawn, November 17th, 2021