On the rise

That honour killings are on the rise in Pakistan is an extremely disturbing fact. The need of the hour is to deal with the menace on an urgent basis. In the Chung area of Lahore, a man killed his mother and six-year-old sister after his mother remarried. Voices against such killings are being heard across the country. But, at the same time, the rise in the honour killings has also been observed. The government has enacted new laws to deal with such killings. Recently, at the Multan High Court, a brother killed his sister and her husband in the vicinity of the court because the couple married had a love marriage.

This trend is quite astonishing and perturbing. In order to curb such incidents we need strict laws and to change the mindset too. Although laws on the protection of women have been passed by parliament, they are not implemented in the right way. Previously, court cases related to honour killing were closed because the murderer used to be a family member and the family wanted to save his/her life. Now, the state becomes a party to such case and these cases are pursued till the criminal gets punished. And yet, many criminals manage to escape punishment. We must find a better solution of this problem. In our religion, the killing of one person is considered the killing of humanity. Religious scholars and lawmakers must strive hard to find some reasonable solution to this problem.

Javaid Bashir (Lahore)