Killers and forgivers

The Danger here is that whole raft of prospective killers might start doing a lot of forgiving

The tricks that people get up to in the name of honour in the land of the pure never cease to amaze me. In the issue of The Express Tribune dated October 18 there was this horrific report about a man who decided to terminate the temporal existence of his daughter, pardoned himself and forgave his son and nephew, who in turn forgave him. If this isn’t weird I don’t know what is.

After the Second World War some French soldiers who returned home after fighting the Bosch found the wife had been rather charitable with her affections, so they pulled out their service revolvers and shot them. They didn’t call it honour killing but a crime of passion. The magistrates were sympathetic and the executors were acquitted. In my book both episodes fall under the heading of murder. Plain and simple murder. In the incident which was reported from Punjab, the province that appears to have the largest number of honourable men in Pakistan, the incident which involved the Great Forgivers was apparently due to an unfortunate lapse in the law. Somebody here appears to be acting like a relate counsellor from purgatory. In France this incident would have been given a Grand Guignol performance. In Pakistan, so far, there has been a stony silence. Of course the government has been rather busy congratulating Ishaq Dar for the award he received in spite of the fact that while he was passing around the beggar’s bowl the IMF had to point out that in three years losses in PIA, the Steel Mill and the Railways surged to Rs705 billion. Coming back to the bloke who took shelter under a clause in a religious edict, what is the voice of liberal conscience doing about it? Or the government which recently passed a bill protecting women and awarding punishment to those who kill in the name of honour. The killer, Faqir Mohammad, in his statement before the additional district and sessions judge Nadia Ikram Malik, admitted that he killed his real daughter and in the name of God he forgave himself, his son and nephew for snuffing out the life of poor Kiran Bibi who had probably been frolicking in the lily pond with a yokel who had climbed over the wall.

The word murder was mentioned by the Great Forgiver though I strongly object to him invoking God in his defence. It doesn’t end there. The lawyer Muhammad Azhar Siddique argued that the new honour killing laws would not have retrospective effect, therefore the offence is compoundable and a compromise can be reached. Advocate Muhammad Qasim stated that it is astonishing that an accused can forgive himself for committing murder. It is a joke on the law. Advocate Asif Bajwa went a step further by saying the judge had committed an irregularity. I can’t think of any other country where such a thing can happen where a killer can get away with premeditated murder in such a manner. The danger here is that a whole raft of prospective killers of wives, daughters, aunts, sisters and sisters-in-law whom the murderers plan to send across the River Styx might start doing a lot of forgiving.

This is certainly something for the Supreme Court. I know Nawaz Sharif is probably rattled after being informed that he would be summoned to appear in the top court along with his detractors and has no time to devote to the judgment on the Kiran Bibi murder. So it is up to Raza Rabbani, a lawyer the nation can be proud of, who initiated the law on punishing those who kill in the name of honour, a law that was passed by both houses of parliament. The ball is now in their court.

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

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