Should this man be allowed to live?

There’s something about the ordinary illiterate or semi-literate Pakistani which causes him to go berserk whenever his wife asks for a divorce. “We’re not cowards like you city-folk,” said a Baluch supervisor in my factory. “If our wives want to separate from us, we immediately shoot them.” When I asked him the reason, he said, “If she wants a divorce, she’s probably fond of another man, and may even be having sexual relations with him. That’s enough reason for her to be killed.”

“But maybe she can’t tolerate you beating her black and blue every other day, or perhaps she doesn’t like you because she suspects you too have sex with other women,” I said.

“Having sex with other women is a fundamental right we men have in our tribe, and beating her is sanctioned by our religion,” he retorted.

I was reminded of this when I read about a man kidnapping his ex-wife and torturing her. This is how Dawn reported it. Nitasha, daughter of Suhail Ahmad, a trader of Waterworks Mohallah, married Muhammad Bilal, a resident of Shahabpura Road and manufacturer of leather products, around a year ago.

Bilal was already married but he concealed this fact from Nitasha and his in-laws. When Nitasha came to know that her spouse was already married to another woman and had children as well, she applied for dissolution of marriage and got a decree in her favor from a local court around four months ago”.

Typically Pakistani behavior!

The sufferings inflicted on the girl included burns on her face and other body parts by placing hot iron and cutting her hair. She was immediately taken to Allama Iqbal Memorial DHQ Hospital from where she was shifted to a hospital in Lahore in precarious condition.

Shouldn’t this barbarian Bilal be subjected to the same kind of torture he inflicted upon his poor ex-wife? It’s more likely that he’ll buy his way out, knowing that our justice system is highly corrupt.