A murder and a pardon
This case reflects how laws can be so easily misused by those with sufficient wealth.
Shahrukh Jatoi. PHOTO: FILE
It is now likely there will be no justice for Shahzeb Khan after all. The campaign calling for this, begun soon after the 20-year-old student was shot dead in Karachi on December 25, last year, had poured off the social media, onto the streets and brought a nation together.
In many ways, it had seemed to work — the overwhelming public pressure acting to bring Shahrukh Jatoi, one of the killers, back from Dubai where he had escaped soon after the killing, which was carried out over the teasing of Shahzeb’s sister. An Anti-terrorism Court (ATC) earlier this year, sentenced Jatoi and Siraj Ali Talpur to death. Talpur’s brother and an employee were awarded a life term.
The news that Shahzeb’s parents have pardoned the killers — allowing them to potentially walk away scot free — has infuriated many of those who had fought for the murderers, both from powerful feudal families, to be punished. But are DSP Aurangzeb Khan and his wife really to blame? The country’s laws, under which murder is treated as a crime against an individual rather than the State, and allow compensation or ‘diyat’ to be accepted for physical hurt, open up the way for this. Other powerful persons have benefited from these. After all, applying coercive pressure is much the norm in our country, while of course, it is likely money is involved too. It is these laws that need to be amended. Blaming individuals is pointless.
Even now matters lie in the hands of the ATC, which is to decide on the application from Shahzeb’s parents. The Peshawar High Court has ruled previously that crimes terrorising society cannot be compensated for. The problem, of course, is that the weak can easily be pressured and perhaps, more than all else, this case reflects how laws can be so easily misused by those with sufficient wealth, making true justice something of an impossibility. This is something we need to debate in our society so that we can guard against the misuse of laws and change how murder is looked at under the existing mechanisms.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2013.
In many ways, it had seemed to work — the overwhelming public pressure acting to bring Shahrukh Jatoi, one of the killers, back from Dubai where he had escaped soon after the killing, which was carried out over the teasing of Shahzeb’s sister. An Anti-terrorism Court (ATC) earlier this year, sentenced Jatoi and Siraj Ali Talpur to death. Talpur’s brother and an employee were awarded a life term.
The news that Shahzeb’s parents have pardoned the killers — allowing them to potentially walk away scot free — has infuriated many of those who had fought for the murderers, both from powerful feudal families, to be punished. But are DSP Aurangzeb Khan and his wife really to blame? The country’s laws, under which murder is treated as a crime against an individual rather than the State, and allow compensation or ‘diyat’ to be accepted for physical hurt, open up the way for this. Other powerful persons have benefited from these. After all, applying coercive pressure is much the norm in our country, while of course, it is likely money is involved too. It is these laws that need to be amended. Blaming individuals is pointless.
Even now matters lie in the hands of the ATC, which is to decide on the application from Shahzeb’s parents. The Peshawar High Court has ruled previously that crimes terrorising society cannot be compensated for. The problem, of course, is that the weak can easily be pressured and perhaps, more than all else, this case reflects how laws can be so easily misused by those with sufficient wealth, making true justice something of an impossibility. This is something we need to debate in our society so that we can guard against the misuse of laws and change how murder is looked at under the existing mechanisms.
Published in The Express Tribune, September 11th, 2013.