Honour killings in Pakistan continue to represent a deep-rooted human rights crisis sustained by patriarchal norms, weak law enforcement and pervasive social acceptance. Although official statistics vary, the scale of the issue remains alarming. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) reported405 cases of honour killing in 2024, while media-based estimates from recent years indicate a range of approximately 226 to 470 cases an-nually. Human rights organizations consistently emphasize that these figures capture only a fraction of real incidents. Many killings are hidden, framed as suicides or accidents or re-solved privately through informal justice mechanisms, leaving them unrecorded and beyond state scrutiny.

Honour killings—also referred to as shame killings—are typically framed as acts committed to restore a family’s honour. Internationally condemned, they disproportionately target women accused of violating expected moral or cultural norms.........

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