ast Saturday, a girl in Jhang was immolated by her family in the name of ‘honour’ allegedly for wanting to marry a person of her choice.

Zarina Bibi, alias Masooma Bibi, was taken to a medical facility where she insisted on talking to the police so they could record her statement. The same night, she succumbed to her burns.

According to the statement given by the deceased to the police, she was first married five or six years ago. Her husband was violently abusive and two years ago she decided that she had had enough of domestic violence and filed for a divorce.

Bibi told police that she had recently informed her family that she wanted to get married to someone she liked but they did not approve of her choice.

She said she had tried her best to convince them but failed. She said in the middle of an argument in which she stood her ground some of her family members doused her with kerosene oil and then set her on fire.

A sub-inspector who was patrolling the area when the incident occurred and reported to the facility soon afterwards says he has investigated many homicides but had found her condition the most horrific.

“I was on duty that day,” recalls SI Muhammad Boota of Garh Maharaja police station, in Ahmedpur Sial tehsil of Jhang. “I received information that a girl had been brought to the rural health centre and that she had allegedly been burnt by her family members.” s

“I left the routine patrol and rushed to the RHC. The victim was about to breathe her last breath. She said she wanted to record her statement,” says Boota. “She said they (her family) had poured kerosene on her and set her on fire,” he adds.

According to the SI, the police have arrested Zarina Bibi’s father, three brothers and three sisters. “We have also registered a case against them,” he says.

The incident is the latest addition to a long list of honour killing cases reported from Faisalabad division.

Three years ago, in the May of 2020, in a similar incident a stone’s throw away from Batala Colony police station of Faisalabad, one Fauzia and her husband Hamid, who had married without her family’s approval were forcibly brought to her parents’ home and brutally murdered.

According to the statistics compiled by Punjab Police, a total of 659 people were killed between 2011 and 2022 in the name of ‘honour’ in the four districts of Faisalabad division. The number is higher than any other division in the Punjab.Sargodha division, where 440 people were killed in the name of ‘honour’ in the same period, ranked second, according to police figures. The number of victims in Gujranwala division was 410, in Multan division 355, in Dera Ghazi Khan division 349, in Lahore division 301, in Bahawalpur division 301 and in Sahiwal division 265. With 126 victims, the Rawalpindi division reported the lowest number of ‘honour’ killings.

Three years later, the police have been unable to trace and prosecute the culprits.

According to the statistics compiled by Punjab Police, a total of 659 people were killed between 2011 and 2022 in the name of ‘honour’ in the four districts of Faisalabad division. The number is higher than any other division in the Punjab.

Sargodha division, where 440 people were killed in the name of ‘honour’ in the same period, ranked second, according to police figures. The number of victims in Gujranwala division was 410, in Multan division 355, in Dera Ghazi Khan division 349, in Lahore division 301, in Bahawalpur division 301 and in Sahiwal division 265. With 126 victims, the Rawalpindi division reported the lowest number of ‘honour’ killings.

According to the police, from 2011 to 2022, all the police stations in the Punjab registered 3,330 cases of ‘honour’ killings. This comes to about 23 murders every month.

According to the Punjab Gender Parity Report 2021, incidents of violence against women as well as ‘honour’ killings have been increasing. The report says that, until 2021, the conviction rate was negligible.

An uptick reported from the Punjab is quite alarming since a special law was introduced in 2016 to tackle ‘honour’ killings. The law was made after the murder of Qandeel Baloch, a model and social media influencer from Rahim Yar Khan, by her brother.

Nida Aly, executive director of Asma Jahangir Legal Aid Cell, a non-governmental organisation that provides free legal aid to indigent women in Lahore, says that the law has closed the way for the plaintiffs to pardon the accused. “But investigations and court hearings of murders committed in the name of ‘honour’ are still being conducted under the old rules,” she says.

“The law obliges the police to complete the investigation within 14 days of the murder and submit the charge sheet to the court, but this has hardly happened in any case in the seven years” she says. She says the conviction ratio in ‘honour’ killings cases remains extremely low.

Dr Muhammad Rizwan Safdar, an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology at Punjab University, believes that the caste system is a major reason for an increase in such incidents.

“The community is very strong in the rural culture. It is the main cause of so-called ‘honour’ killings in the Punjab,” says the professor. He says choosing to marry outside the biradri (caste) is still seen as a rebellion against the caste system.

“In our society, the concept of ‘honour’ is connected to women. If a girl marries of her own choice, her family is under pressure from the community. They get told that to save their ‘honour’ they have to kill the girl,” he adds.

According to Dr Safdar, a lack of education and awareness of human rights is another reason many people are not ready to accept those belonging to other castes.

“Pakistan is a patriarchal society where a man is the head of the family. When another member of the family, especially a girl, challenges his authority, he does not hesitate to resort to brutal violence to restore his authority,” he says.

Dr Rizwan Safdar says legislation is not enough to prevent such incidents. It also needs to be strictly implemented to deter criminals.

“The concepts of ‘honour’ and communalism also need to change. As long as these concepts persist in their current form, people will continue to be killed in the name of ‘honour’,” he says.

The writer has been associated with journalism for the past decade. He tweets 

@ naeemahmad876