Quest for justice

Another family accused of involvement in an ‘honour’ killing escaped punishment last month, when a Gujrat Sessions Court acquitted the father, brother and uncle of Sana Cheema in a case involving her death last year. Cheema, 25, an Italian-Pakistani living in Brescia in Italy had died while on a trip to visit relatives in her home village. Following an outcry in the Italian media, her body had been exhumed and the autopsy report which followed indicated she had been strangulated rather than meeting a natural death. The court in Gujrat cited lack of evidence and the failure of several witnesses to appear as factors in the acquittal. This is not an uncommon story. More than a decade and a half after she was gang-raped in 2002, the case of Mukhtaran Mai is still to be settled with the Supreme Court continuing to hear a review plea filed by the victim against the acquittal of 13 men who raped her on jirga or panchayat orders. Technical issues, including finding a counsel for the defendants, have held back a final decision in the case for years.

There are many other similar cases in the country and Sana Cheema’s case adds to the list. Victims of violent crime involving what has been labelled ‘family honour’ do not receive justice because of the reluctance of people to step forward and testify or other similar legal lacunae. It is unknown how many such cases there are in the country. Major loopholes in the law, which allowed a father or guardian of the victim to forgive a person accused of an ‘honour killing’, were removed in 2016. The problems, however, remain. Sana Cheema’s case made world headlines after the Italian Foreign Office and media became involved and started asking questions. The fact that this case has ended without a clear-cut outcome is disturbing. We should know why a 25-year-old woman died suddenly and unexpectedly. This is also true for many other women in the country who have met violent death, with police, administrators and courts still struggling to treat their killings as terrible crimes for which the perpetrators need to be penalised under the relevant laws.