On a July evening in 2025, under the vast, unyielding sky of Balochistan, a woman and a man — Bano Bibi and Ehsan Samalani — were executed not by state order, but by the ruthless will of a tribal jirga. Their crime: choosing love over lineage. Their punishment: death by decree of tradition, meted out in the name of “honour.” The case sparked viral outrage, international headlines, and promises of reform. But now, weeks later, the dust is settling — and with it, the country’s resolve.

In 2016, following the honour killing of Qandeel Baloch, a social media icon whose unapologetic defiance unsettled Pakistan’s moral orthodoxy, the state passed legislation to close the qisas loophole, which had long permitted families to pardon their own daughters’ murderers. It was hailed as a turning point, a symbolic triumph of law over custom. And yet, nearly a decade later, the machinery of impunity grinds on, unimpeded. Another woman lies buried, another digital outrage erupts and recedes, and the architecture of patriarchal violence remains firmly intact — too embedded, too convenient, and far too endemic to dismantle through law alone.

What, then, is honour in a nation where the law genuflects before the gun?

Jirgas: The Shadow Judiciary

In many parts of Pakistan — especially rural Balochistan, Sindh, and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — the tribal jirga is not merely a relic of the past; it is the de facto justice system. These male-only councils, operating outside the constitution, wield immense power, delivering verdicts based on centuries-old codes of tribal honour. While the Supreme Court of Pakistan declared jirgas and panchayats unconstitutional in 2004 for violating Article 25 (Equality of Citizens), the state has largely turned a blind eye to their........

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