Pakistan's Selective Outrage: Why Moral Policing Outweighs Human Rights

Pakistani people are enraged after seeing leaked footage of a private party in Hunza., but congratulate the honour killers of women.

In Pakistan, fundamental concepts like human rights get mixed up with personal, cultural, or religious disagreements. The public is often outraged about petty things in light of any news , or finds petty news to be enraged about, with fundamental human rights forgotten between sensationalism, religious disagreements and the concept of righteousness.

If an individual action is seen as harming the social or moral fabric, the majority often feels justified in opposing it, viewing it not as a violation of a right, but as the defense of public order. The population believes so vehemently in a flimsy public order that they cannot wrap their minds around someone wanting to go against it, or the failing of their own public order.

This is seen in news of murders and rapes, for example the horrific murder of Sana Javed in Rawalpindi, where the public was flabbergasted that a woman was failed so violently by society, while the murderer showed signs of psychotic behaviour as early as 10 years ago. Because the murderer’s previous abuse was not seen as a reality because it falls outside of the society’s understanding of its own public order, he was let free and allowed to be married to an innocent woman.

The first report of his abuse was made in 2016, and he was fired from his workplace in 2019. At the news of the private party in Hunza, the hotel was closed the next day.

The society does recognize cultural or religious wrongs, which are grossly placed over the context or human life. Pakistani people see an individual sinning and decide the individual’s existence is a threat to social order. A person is seen as an anomaly to be fixed and erased, for the upkeep of society. In a fundamentalist mindset, a person who steps out of line isn’t just “wrong”—they are viewed as a spiritual or cultural disease.

In September 2026 a 17 year old girl in Peshawar got pregnant out of wedlock and she agreed to her parents to murder her. This is a perfect example of committing what society views as a grave sin, to be a reason to justify a murder of your own child. In the face of sin or wrongdoing, it becomes justified for erasure of a life.

It trickles down to “smaller” things, where it is decided by society that if a woman is outside her house at night, it is an invitation to be harassed or raped.

Life and human rights and safety are conditional, and a privilege in Pakistan, and only culture decides who gets the privilege. A person walks on a razor -thin wire where safety, human rights and life can be snatched away if you sin.