Honour in honour killing?

The families of both the man and the woman took part in the bloodbath, according to police: the couple was killed for their free-will marriage in Karachi’s Mominabad locality this month, and this all happened on the orders of a jirga operating in Karachi. 

The bodies of Abdul Hadi and Haseena Bibi were buried in the dead of the night earlier this month in a graveyard in Qaimkhani of the Ittihad Town locality.

Most of the honour killing accused are acquitted of the charge because of the pardon extended to them by the complainants. 

The unlucky bride and the groom, who were also close relative – Haseena Bibi was the daughter of Abdul Hadi’s uncle – had tried to escape death by fleeing their homes and living in a rented house in hiding from November 19. 

They were able to cheat death only for a week when their families chased them like the death angel and ambushed them in their hideouts. The matter came to the light when on November 24, when the landlord was alerted by the residents of the area that they had spotted blood around the house. 

Police have arrested nine people, including the boy’s father, brother and other relatives. One of them confessed to killing the couple for bringing a bad name to the Kohistan-based tribe. The family of the woman is at large. 

The scourge of honour killing, and that mostly done on the orders of illegal jirgas or tribal councils, keeps on claiming people’s lives, most of them for exercising free-will marriage. In most of the honour killings, it is the woman’s side that spills the blood. A gut-wrenching trend, however, is emerging where both families take part in the murder. Earlier in a similar incident in September this year, a couple – boy (17) and girl (15) – were electrocuted by both families on the orders of a Jirga in Sherpao Colony. Both the boy and the girl had wished to marry each other, which their families were opposed to.

As the whole country is in shock over the murders, Sindh Chief Minister Murad Ali Shah ordered the police to arrest and get punished the culprits behind the gruesome murders. "This is Karachi, not a tribal area. How was a jirga held here?" he roared in his orders to the police. The words of the chief minister do not approve the holding of jirgas in Karachi, and it should not a rightful activity in tribal areas either. Tribal customs do not allow the people to marry the person of their choice. Any attempt to defy the customs attracts the wrath of the whole tribe. The tribal blood keeps running and claiming people’s lives in a metropolis like Karachi and Lahore. Old, obsolete tribal trends often fail the modern education and civilization.

The government has passed several laws to discourage honour killing and using girls as bargain chips to settle family feuds. The custom of Vani, giving the hand of a woman to a rival family to settle a murder case, in Mianwali and other Punjab areas, has come to an end after the strict enforcement of laws. Similarly, laws stop the act of granting pardon from the complainant to the killer in an honour killing case. These laws are being implemented in letter and spirit but still, bloodshed is reported from across the country. The government, as well as opinion makers, religious leaders, and educationists, all need to join the efforts to change the mindset of the people towards love marriage and honour killings.