Senators alarmed by ‘surge’ in violence against women; 5pc conviction rate termed ‘systemic failure’

ISLAMABAD: Senators on Friday voiced alarm over rising violent crimes against women and demanded stronger measures to improve the conviction rate, which the presiding officer, PPP Vice President Sherry Rehman, said stood at “only five per cent”. The debate began after Balochistan Senator Naseema Ehsan raised the killing of Rubina Chandio for alleged ‘honour’ in Sindh’s Tando Masti. “Rubina Chandio was killed in Sindh. She was given neither a funeral nor a shroud,” Ehsan said. She added that the woman was shot in front of a crowd, and the case surfaced after videos circulated on social media. “The culprits involved in this brutal murder should also be hanged publicly,” she added. Police suspect that Chandio was killed in a karo-kari case in Khairpur district. ‘Honour killings’ persist despite the 2016 anti-honour killing law that removed the option of pardoning by heirs. HRCP data says over 470 women were killed in the name of ‘honour’ in Pakistan in 2023. Rehman called the situation “deeply distressing and unacceptable”. She said the country was witnessing a “dangerous surge in honour killings, rape, and other forms of gender-based violence”. “The surge in these cases is deeply concerning. We cannot allow such brutality to become normalised,” she said. She termed the 5pc conviction rate “an extremely alarming state of affairs”. “When justice is delivered sporadically, it reflects a systemic failure,” she said, adding that the legislative framework existed, but “what is missing is implementation with resolve and consistency”. Rehman also rejected the notion that such crimes were limited to remote areas or linked solely to poverty and illiteracy. “These crimes also occur within influential households. Wealth, status, and education do not erase patriarchal thinking — often, they provide stronger networks of silence and protection,” she said. She urged that cases be “continuously and rigorously taken up by the Senate Human Rights Committee”. “True deterrence will only c