SC calls for gender-sensitive policing

The Supreme Court has ruled that provincial governments must ensure appropriate training for police officers to help them recognise and overcome gender and patriarchal biases in cases involving violence against women. A division bench headed by Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar issued the observation in a 10-page judgement while upholding the life imprisonment of a man convicted of murdering his wife. Justice Kakar, who authored the judgement, said law-enforcement agencies must adopt a genuinely gender-sensitive approach to investigations into violence against women. Investigators, he said, must identify, preserve and bring on record every available piece of evidence, while the privacy of the matrimonial home must not be allowed to become a shield behind which perpetrators can evade accountability. The judgement stressed that investigating officers must be held accountable if negligence or a casual attitude results in lapses in the investigation. The court expressed grave concern over what it described as a disturbing trend in cases involving violence against women, where perpetrators allegedly attempt not only to kill their victims but also to assassinate their character afterwards in an effort to justify the crime or portray the killing as somehow warranted. "A wife may be killed because the husband wishes to get rid of her, a sister may be killed for some unlawful design, or a woman may lose her life after years of abuse, only for the perpetrator thereafter to portray her as immoral or of bad character," the judgement observed. It said such practices reflected a deeply rooted patriarchal mindset in which a woman's life, choices and dignity were treated as having lesser value, allowing perpetrators to shift blame onto the victim rather than confront their own criminal conduct. The court warned that such prejudice could also enter the criminal justice system, resulting in the circumstances surrounding a woman's death not receiving the seriousness and care required during investigation. It observed that treating a woman's life as though it were of lesser value could lead to an incomplete or inadequate investigation, as was seen in the case before the court. The judgement referred to data on gender-based violence contained in the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan's State of Human Rights Report 2025. According to the report cited by the court, Punjab recorded 6,572 domestic violence cases, 188 honour killings, 3,281 rape cases, 32 acid crime cases and 884 murders. Sindh reported 337 domestic violence cases, 126 honour killings, 447 rape cases, three acid crime cases and 130 murders. Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa recorded 272 domestic violence cases, 116 honour killings, 224 rape cases, three acid crime cases and 325 murders. Balochistan reported 183 domestic violence cases, 29 honour killings, 23 rape cases, one acid crime case and 54 murders, while Islamabad recorded 31 domestic violence cases, three honour killings, 80 rape cases, two acid crime cases and 42 murders.