By Babar Naveed
LAHORE: A sessions court in Lahore on Monday sentenced two brothers to death in a double murder case.
Zeeshan and Ahsan had killed their sister Saba and her husband Shafique in 2009 for ‘honour’ after the couple had married of their own free will.
Besides awarding the death sentence, Additional Sessions Judge Naveed Iqbal also imposed a fine of Rs1 million on both the accused.
Saba and Shafique, the residents of Yaki Gate Lahore, had left the area over fears of being killed by their relatives after they chose to tie the knot nearly six years ago.
However, a few months after their wedding, Ahsan and Zeeshan invited the couple to their home for a lunch and shot them dead with a gun.
Following the murder, Yaki Gate police had registered a case of double murder in 2009 against the accused. Advocate Chaudhry Mohammad Imran appeared in the court on behalf of the victims.
The judgement in the ‘honour’ killing case coincided with filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy winning her second Oscar award for the best documentary, A Girl in the River, a short film which sheds light on honour killings in the country.
In Pakistan, a loophole in the law allows perpetrators of so-called honour killings to get off scot-free if they are pardoned by their family. Sharmeen wants to change that.
Last week, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had hosted a screening of the film in Islamabad and promised to rid Pakistan of the crime by tightening up the legislation.
