A human rights activists hold placards during a protest in Islamabad against the killing of pregnant woman Farzana Parveen in Lahore on May 29, 2014. PHOTO: AFP
Some 933 people were killed across the country in the name of honour during the past two years while 83 non-Muslims were also reported to be killed during the period. The majority of these cases were reported in Sindh.
These statistics were provided to the National Assembly on Friday by Federal Ministry of Law, in response to a query raised by an MNA, Saman Sultan Jaffri.
According to the report, Sindh proved to be the worst in terms of safety of minorities as 46 cases of non-Muslims’ killings were reported in the province, ruled by Pakistan Peoples Party.
As per the law ministry’s Human Rights Regional Offices – functioning at all four provincial headquarters – 17 non-Muslims were killed in Punjab, 9 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) and 11 in Balochistan, during this period.
The report said a total of 456 and 477 cases of honour killing were reported in Pakistan in 2013 and 2014, respectively. Once again, the greatest number of such cases (602) was reported from Sindh.
As per the federal law ministry’s data for 2013, 66 cases of honour killing were reported in Punjab, 315 in Sindh, 47 in K-P and 28 in Balochistan. Similarly, 477 such cases were reported in 2014. Of these, 80 cases belonged to Punjab, 287 to Sindh, 78 to K-P and 32 to Balochistan.
As per Inspector General of Police Islamabad, six cases of non-Muslims’ killings were registered in the capital city during the last two years. Of these two cases were challaned, one remained untraced, whereas three cases are under investigation. However, no case of honour killing was registered in the capital during the last two years.
The assembly was told that these Human Rights regional offices are pursuing the cases with agencies concerned and are taking action against culprits to ensure justice to the aggrieved families.
However, the interior ministry and National Police Bureau informed the National Assembly that they did not have any requisite data regarding these crimes.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 9th, 2015.
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