Pakistan's progressive legal framework often collides with a deep-rooted cultural mindset, creating a jarring paradox. What the law protects, society condemns. What the law forbids, society continues to normalise. The recent killing of a young couple in Balochistan, reportedly for eloping, is a tragic reminder of this persistent conflict. These are not isolated acts of violence but symptoms of a deeper struggle over authority, identity and autonomy.

Nowhere is this tension more visible than in matters of marriage. Legally, adults have the right to choose their life partners. Court marriages, which are consensual but without familial approval, are valid under the law. But culturally, particularly in tribal and conservative areas, love marriages are often perceived as acts of rebellion against family authority. This cultural aversion has little to do with legal validity and everything to do with perceived threats to collective "honour".

This obsession with honour gives rise to the horrific practice of so-called honour killings. The term itself........

© The Express Tribune