No one in this country will ever know how many murderers have literally got away with murder, let off scot-free. There are no comprehensive statistics on the number of killings perpetrated in the name of "honour". To the best of one's recollection, it was only somewhere in the early 1990s that what has become known as "honour killings" were reported in the press, with the number of reports increasing as time passed.

For years, various human rights bodies, both at home and abroad, have campaigned against the practice and fought for the repeal or the amendment of the various laws which condone these reprehensible murders, mainly of women, and usually innocent women. The majority of these killings in the name of honour are committed by husbands, brothers, fathers, cousins, uncles and so forth, and the law, as it stands, provides for the exemption of certain categories of close relatives from the imposition of "qisas", it allows compromises between the concerned parties, it exempts "honour" killers from any minimum mandatory punishment, and the courts, in their discretion, allow murderers to walk away and kill again. There should be no such concept as "honour killings". They are simply murder and should be dealt with by the courts as such.

The PPPP last year came up with a private member's bill based on consultation with and advice from the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan and the Aurat Foundation which has been extremely active in lobbying for amendments to the penal code which will ensure that the murderers do not escape punishment for their crimes committed in the name of "honour" (the concept of which is totally foreign to them). This bill is languishing with a National Assembly standing committee and now the government has come up with its own bill, choc-a-bloc with lacunae, which even if it is pushed through is not likely to help matters in any way. In fact, it may do more damage because if challenged before the Shariat Court, it stands no chance of survival.

The feudals and the religious bigots reign supreme. Jirgas pronounce their verdicts, and they are carried out regardless of the laws of the land. A recent Sindh High Court judgment has pronounced jirgas to be illegal, but the mighty landlords and those who pronounce themselves to be learned in their religion do not bend to the law. Banner headlines in The Star, this newspaper's evening stablemate, on October 22 read: "Sindh being pushed back to the dark ages" over a report informing us that the Sindh government is contemplating the promulgation of an ordinance "under which jirgas will be made legal in retrospect right from April 25 2004, the day the Sindh High Court Circuit Bench Sukkur on a petition filed by advocate Shabbir Shar imposed a ban on holding jirgas anywhere in Sindh". Is this in consonance with President Pervez Musharraf's hope that "enlightened moderation" will successfully invade the national mindset?

This newspaper, yesterday, strongly editorialized on the government's honour killing bill under the heading: "A bill or an eyewash". Also yesterday, another of our leading newspapers similarly editorialized under the heading "Honour killings: weak bill is evidence of weak will." Both make excellent reading, but are unlikely to be read or digested by this gutless government and its ambivalent members. Will we ever have a forward-looking government with progressive thinking and the will to do good by the country? Or will good governance forever be a far dream?

Hope is forlorn, there remains but the bare reality. A couple of years ago, Burgomeister Farooq Faria (in our language "Town Nazim of Saddar Town") invited me to meet him in his office. Standing in one corner was an empty easel with a garland around it. (This is a step better than what I saw at the MQM HQ, "90", where there was a garlanded loudspeaker through which the Pir of London's telephonic addresses boomed.) One of Faria's assistant's whispered to me that Benazir's photograph had been removed in honour of my visit. On my urging, Faria, produced from beneath his desk the missing photograph and duly installed it back onto the garlanded easel. It was then suggested to Faria that he keep handy photographs of Altaf Hussain, Mian Nawaz Sharif, Pervez Musharraf, etc., etc., which could be propped up depending on the leanings of his visitors.

Last week, I asked Faria what had become of the golden words of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, "Unity, Faith, Discipline", which were cast in bronze and affixed to the Teen Talwar monument on Clifton Road. Had the metal been melted and sold, as one had heard? Clever Faria, with whom I converse in Gujerati, has a sense of humour and is far more responsive than others of his ilk. He told me that somehow or other, it was impossible to re-affix the three bronze words in the same indentations. But a new set was being cast and would be up, shining brightly, before Eidul Fitr.

Since the early 1990s, when that weak and wobbly chief minister of Sindh, Muzaffar Hussain Shah, gifted (what was not his to gift) a Sindh government minister's house to the Commander 5 Corps, when arriving back at my house, I am confronted with two signboards, pointing up Bath Island Hill to the Corps Commander's house, which read "Flag Staff House". Now, surely the generals of our army and their staff know that "Flagstaff" is but one word! Or, maybe they don't; maybe they are all unobservant, or it could be that they just don't care.