Pakistan: Sindh High Court expresses concern over rising honor killings

Karachi [Pakistan], May 14 (ANI): Hundreds of women across Pakistan continue to be murdered every year in the name of "honour" despite the backlash and public outcry.
Expressing disappointment over the killings and rise in Honour killing cases, the Sindh High Court (SHC), questioning the State's failure to counter the problem, ordered the state to stop the "barbaric and abominable practice" and deal with perpetrators sternly, reported Dawn.
As per the reports, SHC called the honour killing an extreme form of domestic violence, while a single bench of the Sindh High Court observed that the practice was escalating unchecked.
The quote further noted that this needs to be urgently curbed before it spirals beyond control and plunges society into complete disorder.
Dawn quoted Justice Nisar Ahmed Bhanbhro as saying, "The honour killing has stained the society where the woman is not even given the right of defence to prove her innocence against the false charges of developing illicit relations."
Honour killings are rarely treated as priority cases in Pakistan, which highlights the state's negligence, weak law enforcement, and a judiciary riddled with misogynistic bias.
As per a 2024 report by Dawn, the incident claimed over 490 lives of women in 2023 and continues to be a serious issue across Pakistan, with a steep rise in numbers.
In its order, the bench observed that the motive behind the murder stemmed from the so-called practice of "karo kari," and attributed the rising incidence of such crimes to the prevailing lack of accountability.
The bench made these remarks while rejecting an appeal filed by a man sentenced to life imprisonment for murdering his wife in the name of so-called honour.
In September last year, a sessions court sentenced Ghulam Mustafa to life imprisonment for murdering his wife in Kashmore in April 2023 under the pretext of honour.
According to human rights watchdogs, over 1,000 honour killings occur annually in Pakistan--a staggering figure that likely underrepresents the true scale due to widespread underreporting and misclassification by police.
In most cases, the perpetrators are immediate family members: fathers, brothers, husbands, or even sons, who justify murder under the guise of cultural or religious norms.
And, instead of building robust protection systems for at-risk women, the state has underfunded shelters, failed to train police in gender-sensitive handling, and allowed tribal and religious conservatives to dictate local justice. (ANI)