For decades, Balochistan has stood at the crossroads of tradition and modernity, where the authority of tribal jirgas often outweighs the writ of the state. Despite legal bans, these parallel systems continue to dictate the most intimate aspects of life—marriage, inheritance, and women’s autonomy—under the rigid banner of “honor.” Across Pakistan, honor killings have claimed thousands of lives, disproportionately affecting women who dare to assert choice.
It was against this backdrop that, on June 4, 2025, an incident on the outskirts of Quetta, Balochistan, captured national attention. A tribal jirga [council] executed a young couple, Ehsan Ullah Samalani and Bano Bibi, for marrying against their families’ wishes. The perpetrators filmed and circulated the execution-style killing, sparking outrage across Pakistan. In the video, the couple is seen walking into a deserted area. Bano, handed a copy of the Quran, calmly says in Brahvi: “Come, walk seven steps with me, after that you can shoot me.” Moments later, she is shot three times, followed by Ehsan’s killing. The spectacle and ritual of the act highlighted the enforcement of tribal codes.
A tribal jirga [council] executed a young couple, Ehsan Ullah Samalani and Bano Bibi, for marrying against their families’ wishes.
Balochistan functions predominantly under tribal institutions that wield authority over personal and moral affairs, often in parallel to the state. Despite a Supreme Court ruling outlawing jirgas in 2019, they continue to operate with implied legitimization, especially in remote regions where formal governance remains weak and absent. In such areas, these traditional systems dominate not only legal matters but everyday life, controlling decisions around marriage, mobility, land, inheritance, and even freedom of thought. Human rights activist Sammi Deen Baloch captures this reality: “In Balochistan, women are murdered for love, disappeared for protest, and buried under layers of tribal authority.”
While the rest of the world embraces change through technology, education, and rights-based governance, many communities in Balochistan remain caught in a power structure frozen in time, imposed not only by tribal elites, but also by ordinary people, especially in tribal belts like Central Balochistan and the Koh-e-Suleiman region. They obey sardars [local nobles] without question, regardless of the state, constitution, or religious morality.
Such loyalty comes at a cost. These regions suffer from underdevelopment, illiteracy, poverty, and entrenched practices like honor killings. In this patriarchal setup, izzat [honor] is a communal value rigidly enforced. In such a system, a woman’s autonomy, particularly in choosing whom to love or marry, is a stain on family honor that must be “cleansed” through punishment, often death. Jirgas routinely sanction killings, casting them as justice rather than crime.
A 2024 Aurat Foundation report recorded 43 honor-murdered women in Balochistan.
Recent incidents illustrate the ongoing brutality of this system. On January 27, 2025, a father and uncle murdered their 14-year-old, U.S.-born daughter, Hira Anwaar, over her social media activity. The family had recently returned from New York and allegedly objected to Hira’s manner of dressing, friendships, and online presence. Police launched an investigation, but the case has sparked national outrage, particularly over the policing of young women’s digital lives and the transnational reach of patriarchal control. More recently, in June 2025, Ali Nawaz Magsi allegedly shot and killed his daughter, Masma Sultana, in Goth Raheja Magsi, accusing her of having illicit relations.
These are not isolated events. A 2024 Aurat Foundation report recorded 43 honor-murdered women in Balochistan, though women’s rights groups warn that these numbers reflect only a fraction, as many cases go unreported due to social stigma, fear of retaliation, and lack of institutional support.
The Sustainable Social Development Organization, an independent Islamabad-based watchdog, reported that nearly 32,000 cases of gender-based violence were recorded across Pakistan in 2024 alone. Among these, 547 were honor killings, 32 of which occurred in Balochistan. While Pakistan enacted the 2016 Criminal Law Amendment to eliminate the legal loopholes in which family members could pardon perpetrators of honor killings, convictions are rare.
In Pakistan, justice for gender-based violence often hinges less on the strength of the legal system and more on intensity of public outrage. The state acts reactively, usually when cases go viral. This culture of “viral accountability” ensures that only a few sensationalized cases reach courtrooms.
The 2025 Quetta case is a clear example. Authorities acted only after an execution video surfaced online. Authorities then arrested members of the jirga and tribal chief Sardar Sherbaz Khan Satakzai.
Social media provides a mechanism to pressure for change and to seek justice for perpetrators protected by the jirga system.
Survivors face stigma, legal illiteracy, women’s financial dependence on men, and male-dominated law enforcement—all discourage reporting and prosecution. Although one-stop protection centers and gender units exist, they are rare in remote or tribal regions. This makes social media a mechanism of last resort.
Until Pakistan institutionalizes gender justice through reforms like gender-sensitization of law enforcement, survivor support systems, and dismantling of parallel justice structures, the cycle will continue.
The Balochistan killings expose a fault line at the heart of Pakistan’s justice system: the clash between constitutional law and entrenched tribal custom. This was not an exception but part of a broader pattern of impunity masked as tradition. At the same time, the role of social media provides a mechanism to pressure for change and to seek justice for perpetrators protected by the jirga system. That the Quetta murder involved an American teen girl, however, opens a path to greater involvement by Washington to punish those complicit in violence and to promote meaningful reform.
