Criminal justice system reforms, execution of law termed imperative to stop karo-kari killings.

KARACHI -- Legislators, senior officials of law enforcement, members of the legal fraternity and civil society activists have agreed that reforms in criminal justice system, implementation of law in true spirit and strong writ of the state are imperative to deal with the menace of 'honour' killing or karo kari in Sindh.

At a consultative meeting titled 'Honour killing - a crime against humanity; reasons and challenges in stopping the menace' organised by Sindh Human Rights Commission on Friday, they spoke at length about the reasons behind the brutal trend and discussed way out to provide justice to victims and their aggrieved families.

Member National Assembly and head of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) human rights cell Nafisa Shah as the keynote speaker at the meeting said that modernisation and reforms within the state and justice system were required to deal with issue of honour killings.

'The case [of honour killings] does not exist outside the state, the courtroom is implicated, law is implicated and criminal justice system is deeply implicated,' she said. 'The idea of restorative justice becomes strong when investigation systems and criminal justice systems are weak. Even though the aspect of culture and customs is present when one talks about honour killings, our criminal justice system is also in dire need [of] reforms and that the so-called garb of Islamisation has had a lot of impact on our criminal justice procedures.'

She also shared about her extensive work on honour killings when she was a journalist and later when she was pursuing her PhD. She said that the anthropological aspect of the issue was something she wanted to explore.

Former chief justice of Sindh High Court retired Justice Shaiq Usmani said that karo kari had a cultural aspect. It was about restraining women and not giving them independence, he said and added that there was a need for a different law.

He said...