Pakistan Reforms & Resolution Summit

The Federal Shariat Court is a higher court established in 1980, which enjoys the appellate and revisional jurisdictions in cases concerning Hudood laws, and is conferred with original jurisdiction to examine the validity of any law on the touchstone of the ‘injunctions of Islam’. When the FSC finds that a legislation or one of its sections violates Islamic edicts, the Court orders the functional government to amend the law within a specified period of time. The law or its provision is regarded as being eliminated from the statute once the specified term has passed if it is not modified or if an appeal against the FSC's ruling is not filed with the Supreme Court's Shariat Appellate Bench.

In 2018, to limit the acquittal of accused in honour killings, the Additional IG Punjab, Investigation Branch Abu Bakr Khuda Bakhsh directed the Punjab Police to include Section 311 of the Pakistan Penal Code in the cases of honour killings. Section 311 of the PPC, which relates to “Tazir after waiver or compounding of the right of Qisas in Qatl-e-Amd”, specifies that the state becomes a party in cases where blood relatives pardon the murderers.