• Remarks absence of specific provision in law reflects gap between constitutional guarantees and country’s domestic legal framework
• Court acquits man, whose wife took her own life in 2020, and his two brothers
• Rules suicidal death can’t be brought within the ambit of Qatl-bis-Sabab
KARACHI: Expressing concern that the country lacks any specific law for holding a person legally responsible for creating circumstances that compelled someone to take the extreme step of suicide, a judge has asked lawmakers to enact legislation to protect vulnerable women.
“The absence of a specific provision criminalising abetment of suicide due to domestic cruelty reflects a serious gap between Pakistan’s constitutional guarantees, its international commitments, and its domestic legal framework,” remarked Additional District and Sessions Judge Mirza Tauseef Ahmed, who is also the presiding officer of the Gender-Based Violence Court (Central).
In his verdict in a case registered by the brother of a woman, 32-year-old Saba Anjum, who committed suicide and left a note holding her husband and in-laws responsible, the judge lamented that Pakistani law did not address cases where domestic abuse by a husband or in-laws forced women to take her own life.
“It is therefore high time that the legislators consider enacting similar legislation, as has been done in India, to protect women who remain in a highly vulnerable position in our society. We frequently hear and read reports of wives committing suicide due to domestic violence, and such tragedies can only be curtailed if strict laws are introduced prescribing deterrent punishments,” the judge wrote in the verdict.
The court acquitted Anjum’s husband Faraz Ahmed Mughal and his brothers, Sheeraz and Ayaz, since they did not “commit any offence punishable under the Pakistan Penal Code [PPC]”.
However, the judge made strong observations in the verdict, stating: “It is the husband of the deceased, accused Faraz Ahmed Mughal, who is held responsible for the suicide of the deceased. His acts and omissions, coupled with his failure to protect his wife from the persistent cruelties of his family, directly contributed to her death.
“Although an FIR was lodged under Sections 322/34, PPC, and the accused persons were charged accordingly, such provisions of law do not appear to be applicable in cases of suicide, as per the definition of Qatl-bis-Sabab provided in Section 321, PPC. The said offence is attracted when a person commits any unlawful act without the intention of causing death or harm to another person.
“However, in the case of suicide, it cannot be said that the perpetrator of domestic violence had no intention of causing death. At the same time, the act of suicide necessarily involves the deceased own intentional act in achieving death. In contrast, under Qatl-bis-Sabab, the deceased does not perform any intentional act of taking his or her own life. Therefore, a suicidal death cannot be brought within the ambit of Qatl-bis-Sabab,” the judge explained.
Referring to the Indian Penal Code, the judge noted that Section 306 of the IPC made punishable offence if any person commits suicide. The law also prescribes punishment for the husband, his relatives, or any other person who subjects a married woman to cruelty, under Section 498-A of the IPC, which criminalises acts of cruelty by the husband or his relatives.
Mentioning the Domestic Violence Act in Sindh, the judge observed that it did not address situations where suicide occured as a consequence of such violence as it provided only a meagre punishment of six-month imprisonment.
According to state prosecutor Hina Naz Shams, it was Anjum’s second marriage, which lasted for about seven months. She said she left a suicide note in which she stated that the accused persons “made her life miserable through domestic violence, which included physical and mental torture, insults by her in-laws, and the neglectful and non-protective behaviour of her husband”.
However, the defence counsel rejected the claims in the suicidal note and maintained that the accused persons were falsely implicated in this case.
However, the court noted: “The sorrowful episode of the deceased’s seven months of married life reflects the cruelties of her in-laws, which, unfortunately, many women in our society often endure. Some continue to bear such cruelties throughout their lives with the hope that circumstances may improve; some manage to escape; while others, finding no refuge or support, are driven to take their own lives. The present case falls within the latter category. The deceased, who had already suffered one divorce, was married a second time by her parents. However, she found no happiness in her second marriage.
“Instead, she was subjected to persistent cruelties at the hands of her in-laws, and her husband himself indulged in such cruelties at the behest of his mother and sisters. Being divorced once before, and her husband also having been divorced, she endured these cruelties for seven months. Finding no way out of the situation, and fearing that if she returned to her parents’ home she would not be believed, she anticipated the harsh societal stigma of being divorced twice. These cruel realities of our society compelled her to take the ultimate step of ending her life,” the verdict stated.
Published in Dawn, December 23rd, 2025
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