Islamabad, June 7 (IANS) Pakistan is failing miserably to meet the most basic constitutional and moral obligations on women’s rights, said a local media report amid the ‘honour’ killing of Gulaan Bharo.
“On paper, the legal framework for dealing with such crimes seems adequate to punish the offender, yet based on the incidence of gender-based violence, enforcement and deterrence are still problematic,” the News Pakistan report said.
Gulaan Bharo, 25, was killed by her husband on May 2, adding her to the list of thousands of Pakistani women killed by the men who are supposed to love and honour them.
According to a report in the Dawn, Gulaan Bharo had said: “I know I will be killed. I am a mother of two children, but for the sake of my father’s dignity, I will sacrifice myself and go back to live with him.”
Gulaan did not agree to go with her family first and wanted to be sent to a shelter, but later, her family convinced her otherwise.
According to the report’s author, Mohammed Sarwar Khan, the institutional culture and inefficiency are entwined with the problem of social patriarchal values and mindsets.
“There is, consequently, an indecent litany of such offences and systemic failures, including refusals to register FIRs, delays, unconscionable settlements under the Qisas and Diyat laws, and going soft on so-called ‘honour’-related crimes,” he noted.
The parliament and the courts have failed to clearly lay out the responsibility for protection and the use of appropriate force across the different stages of the criminal justice and related processes, and they are also failing to articulate a legal doctrine of operational autonomy in policing to ensure impartial justice for all, he added.
“In the district courts, judges are not in control of their courtrooms, nor the judicial process, which is mired by adjournments, delays, escalating costs, lack of information, tactical abuse of process, etc. There is no meaningful check or consequence for a judge repeatedly issuing ‘weak’ judgments,” Khan emphasised.
He said that the system is so flawed and out of sync with society and its justice needs, and there is no justification for doggedly persisting with it.
–IANS
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