The establishment of justice is among the central concerns of a society. One meaning of justice is to create balance. The case of Qandeel Baloch represents many ways in which our society is out of balance.
Firstly, Qandeel was the symbol of a woman who was challenging the oppressive, patriarchal, and cruel norms of our society-these are not just words but have serious implications.
She came from a poor background and was married at an early age even when she wanted to do other things with her life. She wanted to study and maybe choose a different path in her life. But this is not a conceivable reality for a woman in our society as her foremost purpose is considered to be shuttled from her parent’s house to her husband’s house so the parents get over with their responsibility.
She was unhappy in her marriage and she chose to leave and make something else of her life. Since she was uneducated and came from a small town, she had limited options. Qandeel made her way in the world by making use of her beauty and sexuality to earn an income.
In this exposition, we can disentangle the different scripts that led to the murder of Qandeel. We are all partly to be blamed for contributing to the society’s thinking. Justice must prevail and her brother — her murderer — must be punished
This is not an easy choice in our society and nor does it give you an easy life. She had a hard life and fought valiantly to survive. She was beautiful, provocative, and people loved her but the same people also hated her.
She was challenging the deep hypocrisy that is deeply rooted in our society. Men prefer hide away the women related to them but don’t respect other women. These women are always considered to be bad women because they don’t follow societal norms and regulations.
Sexuality is normal and human. It is not shameful but we have a perverse relationship with it.
At one point, due to the electronic media and its manipulation for ratings revealed Qandeel’s past without her consent. Then she challenged the piety of certain religious figures which turned out to be her last transgression.
The next we heard was that she was killed by her very own brother in the name of ‘honour’. Honour is used as an excuse to discipline, kill, and maim women if they imagine a different life path than the one their family determines right for them. The enforcer of the family’s vision can be anyone from the father, mother or brother.
After the television shows revealed Qandeel’s personal life and details, she exposed the religious scholar Mr Qavi and started receiving death threats. She worked hard to earn the money to support her parents and her brother but that eventually led to her death.
In this exposition, we can disentangle the different scripts that led to the murder of Qandeel. We are all partly to be blamed for contributing to the society’s thinking. Justice must prevail and her brother- her murderer must be punished.
The parents, who registered an FIR against their own son, are impoverished. The criminal cases in Pakistani courts require an assiduous follow up by the people who have registered the FIR or the wheels of justice stop turning. Even though the state is a party and in most jurisdictions a criminal offence is an offense against the state, so even if the aggrieved follow up or not, the decisions are handed down.
In this case, without pairavi cases go nowhere and the criminal law is privatised with the Qisas and diyat laws in place which means that the families can forgive the assailants. Even if the families forgive the judges have discretion and can still punish the criminal. But in practice what you see is that inevitably people with power, money and influence are able to escape consequences for crimes committed. On the other hand, those without access to such lines of power are stuck in jails endlessly. This is a system totally devoid of balance. It’s impossible to deliver justice with such a system in place.
There are problems at multiple levels from the way in which FIRs are registered, to the way in which the police collect evidence and especially witness testimonies under Section 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC). The evidence collection is the backbone upon which criminal prosecutions are built. Recently, Punjab government has setup an independent prosecution service which is a great step but in spite of this there is a massive delay in getting justice for Qandeel.
The writer is a research fellow at the CGP and a member of multiple collectives
Published in Daily Times, June 3rd 2018.