Daily Times

The cold-blooded murder of a newly-married couple in Bahawalpur, who had sought refuge in the house of law is yet another manifestation of a weak state and its nonexistent writ against the nauseating patriarchy.

The very fact that a woman had dared to act as an independent entity, exactly in line with the rights provided by the majority religion and the state, did not sit well with her family who could not live with the “defilement” of their “honour.” While the world around us seems to have entered the twenty-third year of the New Age, Pakistan refuses to move an inch out of the dark ages.

No passage of landmark legislations, breathtaking, revolutionary verdicts passed by its judiciary or well-orchestrated campaigns on social media are enough to provide even a semblance of protection to thousands of women (and even men) killed on the pretext of honour every year. With husbands, fathers, sons, brothers, uncles, cousins, and in some cases, strangers, as perpetrators, the victims reach the dismal end for the sole crime of being a woman, which, in turn, means they have no control or say in how their lives are run.

The Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa had made headlines in the past when he had categorically asserted the detachment of the word “honour” from such murders. Our courtrooms tend to treat the crime of taking a person’s life in the name of honour differently from conventional murder because of their own underlying biases.

It is high time the legislature steps in to kick the sympathy card out of the window so that anyone feeling empowered of overstepping the writ of the state in these situations is reminded that no loophole would later help him escape through the backdoor. *