Law against honour killings in weeks, says Maryam

‘Draft finalised’

ISLAMABAD: The ruling party plans to pass long-delayed legislation against honour killings within weeks in the wake of the high-profile murder of an outspoken social media star, the daughter of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said on Wednesday.

The bill will go before a parliamentary committee as early as Thursday, said Maryam Nawaz Sharif.

The government has faced mounting pressure to pass the law against murders carried out by people professing to be acting in defence of honour of their family. The law would remove a loophole that allows other family members to pardon a killer.

The brother of social media star Qandeel Baloch has been arrested in connection with her death and told a news conference he was incensed by her often risqué posts on social media.

Maryam said the government wanted to pass the law unanimously and had been negotiating with religious parties in parliament. “We have finalised the draft law in the light of negotiations,” she told Reuters in an interview.

“The final draft will be presented to a committee of joint session of parliament on July 21 (Thursday) for consideration and approval.”

Maryam said once the parliamentary committee approved the bill, it would be presented for a vote in a couple of weeks before a joint session of parliament.

A spokesman for Jamaat-e-Islami, one of the two major religious parties in parliament, said his party would not oppose the bill.

Pakistan’s other main religious political party, Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, could not be reached for comment but it has only a small number of seats in parliament. Both religious parties have traditionally opposed legislation empowering women.

The Upper House of Parliament passed the bill in 2014 but it lapsed after the government failed to put it up for a vote in the Lower House because it was preoccupied with legislation aimed at tackling security problems and economic reforms.

A senior government official told Reuters all major parties were now backing the bill and it was likely to be passed in a few weeks by a joint session of parliament.

“The prime minister is taking personal interest,” added a second official and close aide to Sharif. “You will see in coming days more will be done, big changes will be announced.”

In a rare move, this week the government became a complainant in the police case against Qandeel’s brother accused of her murder, designating it a crime against the state and thereby blocking her family from forgiving their son.

Although, government officials appeared confident of backing for the bill in parliament, it could still face resistance.

The influential Council of Islamic Ideology warned that it would not support any law that removed the forgiveness loophole, even though the council considers honour killings a crime.

“Islamic law and the Quran say that the right to forgive or punish lies first and foremost with the victim’s family,” said council spokesman Inam Ullah. “So if this bill is trying to completely take away that right from the family, then of course that is against Islamic teachings. The state cannot completely take away that right from the family.”