Pakistani legislators in the lower house of Parliament, acting at the behest of President Pervez Musharraf, passed a measure Tuesday proposing the death penalty for the killing of women committed in the name of honor, a move that human rights advocates consider a first step toward progressive legislation in Pakistan.
Nonetheless, the bill met with strong criticism from opposition members and human rights advocates who said the proposal was weak and would prove to be ineffective.
Each year, hundreds of Pakistani women are killed by relatives acting in the name of honor, on the ground that the womans behavior in some way has impugned (kastet skam over) the familys reputation. The women include those believed to have committed adultery (utroskab) and those who marry without the familys consent.
Many of those killings go unreported, or, if reported, are not investigated. The killings are rampant in rural areas of the country, which have high rates of poverty and illiteracy and continue to be dominated by feudal landlords.
In the southern province of Sindh, under a centuries-old tribal custom known as karo kari, family or tribal members kill men and women even if they only come under suspicion of having had illicit sexual relations.
The bill proposes the death sentence for the most extreme cases of “honor killings” and prison terms from seven years to life in others.
In 2003 as many as 1.261 women were killed across the country in the name of honor and other such customs, the state-run news media reported.
– This tale of horror and tears must come to an end now, and we should have the courage to go for it, a legislator said.
While rights advocates commend the initiative and resolve shown by President Musharraf, they question the effectiveness of the measure. The activists and liberal opposition parties also criticize the continued existence of other laws that treat women in a discriminatory manner.
In the case of honor killings, the laws allow the relatives to pardon the killers if they meet the relatives compensation demands.
This loophole, critics say, has been exploited by perpetrators of such killings, who manage to escape punitive action after being pardoned by parents or relatives, who in most cases themselves instigate the murder in order to redeem the lost family honor.
Critics say, that the bill passed Tuesday retained the problem of compromise “and allows the murderers to continue to be forgiven by the heirs of the victim”.
– Ninety-eight percent of the murderers get acquitted, one source said.
Kilde: The Push Journal
