Baluchistan’s Jirga Justice

By Rubab Ali

In July, a horrendous video appeared on social media of a young couple, learnt subsequently to be Bano Bibi and Ahsan Ullah, being shot to death in broad daylight in the Deghari (Dagari) region of Baluchistan, in Quetta district.

They were, according to the FIR, declared as karo-kari by a local tribal jirga presided over by a tribal elder, Sardar Sherbaz Khan Satakzai, at the behest of the brother of the woman, who later shot them. When the woman was brought to execution, she resisted and even stated indefinitely that she was lawfully married, possessing a lawyer’s marriage certificate, and also with a certain number of children in a former marriage.

Unless there is a systematic change of laws, particularly the application and decommissioning of parallel jirga control coupled with the cultural transformation, this case will end up being a futile annotation of another sad exception to the notion of impunity. To those who champion changes in law, this is the challenge: to convert the law into practice, to unseat the cultural authority of honour violence, and to establish the rights of women as inalienable and not dependent on the pact of the tribes. That way alone can Pakistan inch towards a future where the freedom of choice is not punished

Once the video spread, between 11 and 14 suspects were apprehended by security forces, and a murder case was registered against them under anti-terror laws. They were assigned to the serious crimes investigation division, and the authorities even exhumed the woman’s body for forensic analysis. The Chief Justice of the Baluchistan High Court, Mr Justice Rozi Khan Barrech, took suo motu notice and ordered the top provincial officials and police hierarchy to face the court and brief it on the case.

Leadership condemnation was quick at the provincial and federal levels. On July 23 the Baluchistan Assembly unanimously passed a resolution moved by its Women Parliamentary Caucus calling the killings barbaric, for which no justification was admitted on behalf of any so-called tribal or cultural values of honour, affirmed that justice is the sole duty of the state. The Senate of Pakistan followed suit on July 24 with a cross-party resolution introduced by Senator Sherry Rehman, the Senate chairman, and other speakers condemning killings as an act of insult to constitutional guarantees, and wanting an honest inquiry and prosecution of all the parties involved and also those who either called or approved the jirga..

The tribal jirgas and feudal elders maintain excessive influence in rural regions of Baluchistan, and in general areas of power are weak or concede to traditional discipline. These councils engage in de facto forms of justice, commonly coming up with judgments that clearly contravene state laws and constitutional rights. Legal and gender scholars point out the fact that jirgas have historically found their origin as a means of resolving local disputes with speed and without resorting to forms of legal proceedings in a formal court. However, their results are promoting, in a number of cases, violence and discrimination against the rights of the individuals, and most notably the women, in the interests of upholding their honour or that of the tribe.

As the recent Baluchistan incident signified, the state institutions fail when it comes to sustaining the rule of law in the areas where jirgas persist. In this case the woman’s own family  is said to not have registered an FIR on their own, which goes to show how there might be enforced biases to adhere to the tribal rules and how this was even hampering the initial investigations by the police.

Article 25 of the Constitution of Pakistan provides that Pakistan is an equalized country irrespective of the sex of the people. It officially forbids discrimination, and the right to life and due process are ascertained according to the national law.

Honour‑Killings Legislation: The act came in the form of the Criminal Law Act (Amendment) of 2004 and 2016 and presented certain new provisions on the matter of honour killings and higher penalties for them, to fill the loopholes of the previous acts that perceived such crimes committed as manslaughter and forgivable according to the provisions of qisas and diyat.

Nevertheless, legal theorists say such reforms have not delivered at the implementation level. In most instances, police deny filing FIRs; judges exercise defences of grave and sudden provocation to give out relatively low sentences; and convictions are not common, particularly when the offenders are members of strong tribal/political families. In Baluchistan, in 2024 rpf over 32 reported honour killings, one was convicted. In 2024 the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan documented 405 honoUr killings in the country; activists emphasized that the figure is heavily underreported in honoUr killing cases and that there is also systemic impunity.

This tragedy signals critical gaps:

1. Enforcement in Rural and Tribal Areas

The state should impose its control on the parallel system by eliminating the informal jirga power and arrange for the filing of FIRs, whatever pressures of the family or tribe.

2. Judicial and Police Sensitization

Sensitization and responsibility of players in the law enforcement and justice systems regarding gender-based violence, to disapprove culturally founded justifications, and put the full punishment into effect.

3. Legal Reforms and Victim Protection

Strictly enforce the laws that are already in place against honour killing, ban the qisas/diyat style of leniency (based on forgiveness), and provide witness protection and legal assistance to families.

4. Public Awareness Campaigns

Educational campaigns (at the level of community to discredit bad tribal practices and highlight the rights of women under the Constitution) at the time were supported by Senate and Provincial resolutions.

5. Civil Society Mobilization

Assist the rights activism of women such as Sammi Deen Baloch and other female activists in Balochistan, who spread fear in the oppressive state and feudal patriarchy.

The deaths of Bano Bibi and Ahsan Ullah do not symbolize just another honor killing, but they are an illustration of the conflicting interaction of constitutional justice and the tribalism regime. Their immediate apprehension, the terrorism arrests, the High Court interventions, and the political outcry are all indicative of the level of state reaction that is not typical of honour-killing cases in general and in Balochistan in particular. But history has spoken to remind us that nothing can be done on outrage alone.

Unless there is a systematic change of laws, particularly the application and decommissioning of parallel jirga control coupled with the cultural transformation, this case will end up being a futile annotation of another sad exception to the notion of impunity. To those who champion changes in law, this is the challenge: to convert the law into practice, to unseat the cultural authority of honour violence, and to establish the rights of women as inalienable and not dependent on the pact of the tribes. That way alone can Pakistan inch towards a future where the freedom of choice is not punished.

The writer is a freelance columnist