Samia Shahid vs Kiran Bibi case

Letter October 24, 2016
The amended law on honour killings is only to appease the outside world

JUBAIL, SAUDI ARABIA: One would appreciate if Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif wrote to British-Pakistani Labour MP form Bradford and women rights activist Naz Shah, ensuring her of swift action being taken against the culprits involved in the brutal murder of Samia Shahid. We all know why MP Naz wrote to Nawaz Sharif in the first place; she was not only trying to persuade Pakistani authorities to speed up the investigation but it was also a gesture to satisfy her ‘desi’ constituency in Bradford. I hate to think that Samia was a more ‘fortunate’ victim of honour killing; being a British national her murder was tracked at high levels and one may presume justice will be delivered.

I wish someone in the secretariat would have highlighted the case of Kiran Bibi and her friend for him to see what’s happening in his own constituency. The two were shot dead in 2014 by her father, Faqeer Muhammad, while her brother and cousin were accused. Since Ziaul Haq introduced self-interpreted amendments in the Constitution to implement Qisas (retribution) and Diyat (blood money) in the 1980s, hundreds of murderers walked scot-free when family members pardoned them only because the accused were also blood relatives of the victim, or money talked to settle the case. However, history was made in Lahore recently when Faqeer Muhammad submitted an application to pardon himself only because he was the legal heir of the victim, Kiran Bibi. This did not happen in medieval times in a tribal society but in the 21st century in an urban setting.

Ziaul Haq murdered humanity in the name of religion and justice. It’s being said that the amended law on honour killings is only to appease the outside world while keeping religious and tribal constituencies on board.

Masood Khan

Published in The Express Tribune, October 23rd, 2016.

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