In the first part of my column, I dealt with the factors leading to the survival of this old evil practice in regions inhabited by tribes under their chiefs in Sindh, Balochistan, South Punjab, and among Pashtun tribes which, to recapitulate, include the lack of education; social and economic reforms; the concentration of agricultural land in few hands; the economic dependency of women; the influence of tribal chiefs; corruption within the police and faulty investigation; loopholes in our prosecution; Jirga intercessions; the absence of legal and constitutional awareness in society; weak civil society; and the heightened sense of pride, vanity, and honour among unlettered male members. The state has failed to discharge its responsibility towards its citizens.

In patriarchal tribal orders, the main factor is social indiscretion leading to the breach of family honour, or the defiance of men’s control over her life by a female member. In some cases, land and property have been the actual trigger for killing and labelling the crime as Karo Kari. The landed aristocracy, Sardars, and feudal lords have become a state within the state in Sindh, Balochistan, and South Punjab, controlling the lives of their serfs. They subtly resist the spread of education, redistribution of agricultural land, and the establishment of egalitarianism that directly threatens........

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