Pakistan is not a country designed for women. There’s no denying that. But to see victim after victim holding onto the edge of their seat in the skies or a rickety bench in a dusty courtroom, their eyes perched upon the mighty gavel for at least, a sense of closure while the justice system fails to deliver is an unbearable experience.
It has been a year since the dumbell-battered dead body of Sarah Inam was recovered from a bathtub in Islamabad but her grieving family ie yet to receive her due justice. On Wednesday, an Islamabad court granted the prime accused one more week to present further evidence.
This is when just yesterday, social media was remembering Noor Mukadam, another woman decapitated by someone because she refused to bow down to his whims. An eerie terror seemed to grip the entire country as it finally began to fear for its daughters, sisters, wives and women.
Although appealed in the Supreme Court, the daunting double death sentence given to the accused gave everyone a false sense of hope that enough had been enough and now no man, however privileged, would enjoy the adrenaline rush of taking someone’s life.
Every hearing of Sarah’s murder case laughs at the piercing irony, reminding every woman walking the street that they would never be safe. This idea that men are superior to women continues to cast its shadows over all spheres of society, because of which intimate partner violence is making merry on its way to becoming the newest, in-vogue crime on the block. Just last month, two grieving fathers had implored the higher judiciary to expedite the trial of their daughters’ murders.
The law needs to establish its supremacy, especially in these matters, where expeditious decisions based on merit reinforce the trust of the masses in their state and their justice system. We cannot allow the disturbing sense of entitlement that enjoyed its parade in the Shahzeb Khan murder case to once again bask in the limelight. *