Daily Times

It is rumoured that after the resounding success of the movie Triple M, the stage is set for further like ventures. Not only was Triple M a local production, it also boasted an entire local cast and was proudly filmed on our own Pakistani soil. It ran for three whole days, gaining amazing accolades and immense applause, mainly from the cast and crew itself, and biting criticism from a disturbingly large majority of the insignificant audience. But who cares about self-serving audiences, devoid of the ability to see over and above their own vested interests and leisurely pursuits? Regardless, the film is going to the Cannes Festival, with the caption, “Jalnay walay ka munh kala” (the jealous will have black faces).

The movie had an inspired director who was able to articulate well and manage all the entire cast, resulting in a brilliant final product even though it is popularly thought that a man is unable to tell the difference between an apple and a banana! Let me confide in you: there is no difference, both are ‘foreign-hand-agents’ working in disguise! The movie, which had a star studded cast of three lead actors — Malik, Motorbike, Mobile — however failed to portray the woes of the foreign-hand-agents, who would presumably have woken up at dawn, donned their ‘priority-visa-to-heaven-jackets’, inspired and manufactured by unsung designers, waited for ‘that’ call from their ‘foreign-handlers’, and waited and waited and waited. The foreign-handlers meanwhile would have gone frantic to discover that ‘Mobile’ had been assigned by ‘Malik’ to outwit them and even their long-time trusted friend ‘Motorbike’ was in hiding. Short of using a handheld loudspeaker for communicating with the ‘agents’ or finding donkey carts as transport to blend in, they were left with no option but to wait for the next flight to ‘heaven’! And ‘Malik’ was able to save Pakistan, once again!

Still reeling from the ‘expected’ success of the movie, the first to cause huge losses to the audience instead of the producers, I came across an article, “To be a woman in Pakistan”. While I have maintained a strict policy of not commenting on articles published in newspapers as every individual is entitled to their opinion, I cannot but point out a few disturbing aspects, with my apologies in advance to anyone who may be offended. The article, while observing that three Pakistani women made it to the FP’s Global Thinker’s List 2012, stated: “It must be noted that in a country like Pakistan where women are constitutionally and legally considered of lesser worth, where they are valued less in cases of Qisas and Diyat, or the Law of Evidence, which institutionalised a reduced value assigned to a woman’s testimony…The state of Pakistan does not deliver to its female citizens when it comes to equal rights. It is very unfortunate but the Pakistani constitution does not view women as equal and productive citizens of the country…It is not just that but these legal and constitutional inequalities have also made certain types of criminal activities such as honour killings, domestic abuse and violence within families and tribes ‘compoundable’ — i.e. they are treated as crimes against the individual rather than as against the state.”

While one may be inclined to agree with the fact that maybe in some parts of our developing nation, women are considered of ‘less’ value but to assert that they are of ‘lesser worth’ ‘constitutionally and legally’, takes us back to the banana and the apple! The constitution guarantees equality of all citizens before law and entitles them to equal protection of law. It states, “There shall be no discrimination on the basis of sex” and allows the state to make “any special provision for the protection of women and children.”

As for Qisas and Diyat, there is no law that states that the qisas for a woman will be different than that of a man or the diyat of less value than that of a man. I feel quite confident in saying that should I be murdered today, no court can legally say that a chicken be hanged in exchange for my life (though secretly they may wish they could!) and no court can order my diyat to be proportionate to the value of a Big Mac. For the financial year 2012-13, the federal government notified the value of diyat to be Rs. 2,532,073, the value of 30,630 grams of silver; the value of diyat, which a court can award to the ‘heirs of victim’, cannot be less than the notified value and the word ‘victim’ applies to a man and woman both.

The concept of ‘compoundable’ offences is a part of our constitution unless repealed; even in the west, victims of offences decide not to press charges many times, even in cases of assault. I have been arguing for long that honour crimes be made un-compoundable and be declared a crime against humanity, but to imply that only women are killed in such is erroneous: men and women are both killed in honour crimes. Domestic violence is not only an issue in Pakistan, which has catered somewhat for it in the family laws. A look at the statistics collected by the international agencies, government departments and Bar Associations reveals that a woman is assaulted in the US every nine seconds, with 45 percent having experienced some kind of violence during their lifetime. On average, two women a week in England and Wales are killed by a violent partner or ex-partner, constituting nearly 40 percent of all female homicide victims. A US study showed that “of females killed with a firearm, almost two-thirds were killed by their intimate partners. The number of females shot and killed by their husband or intimate partner was more than three times higher than the total number murdered by male strangers using all weapons combined in single victim/single offender incidents in 2002.” There are varying figures for other countries available. Women are killed by their husbands or intimate partners worldwide, though this certainly should not be an excuse for killing them in Pakistan.

I have pointed out in my earlier articles that the testimony of two women is required only in matters of financial or future obligations, which should be amended to ‘loan’. Our law accepts the testimony of one woman in all criminal, civil, family and other cases. Pakistan is a developing nation and may have many flaws but it grants constitutional equality to women; has made provisions for women-specific offences in the Penal Code, and has Family Laws that guarantee ease of the woman in filing for cases with respect to jurisdiction. Our laws grant a woman the right to khula, maintenance, her property and many more; ours is a country that has awarded the death penalty to perpetrators of rape on the sole testimony of a victim.

The writer is an advocate of the High Court