Pakistan TV anchor shot dead at home, husband arrested after national outrage | GRAVITAS

Gender-based violence remains a major issue, cutting across class boundaries, with the country reporting over 1,300 murders linked to domestic violence last year alone. Amid this, the murder of Pakistani news anchor Rabia Ahsan has sent shockwaves across the country.

Ahsan, who hosted a current affairs show at a private news channel in Pakistan, was found dead at her home in Rawalpindi with a gunshot wound below her neck.

Her husband was arrested based on a complaint filed by the victim's brother.

For his part, the husband claimed that the gunshot had been fired accidentally. The police have assured a fair probe into her death.

Subsequently, Pakistan's First Lady Aseefa Bhutto-Zardari called for a thorough, impartial and transparent probe to ensure that the guilty are held accountable.

Stressing that women must be able to live and work without fear for their lives, she also lamented how Hina Javed, a digital media executive killed in Rawalpindi three months ago, was yet to receive justice.

Pakistan People's Party Senator Sherry Rehman also strongly condemned Ahsan's killing.

She said, and I quote:

"No woman should have to live in fear for her life, least of all within her own home."

Now, this is not the first time in recent years that female journalists in Pakistan have been victims of intimate partner violence.

This essentially refers to abuse by a current or former partner.

In 2019, for instance, a young female reporter, Arooj Iqbal, who wanted to launch her own newspaper, was found dead in Lahore.

The main suspect in this case was her own ex-husband, who was reportedly against her ambition.

A year later, Balochistan-based journalist Shaheena Shaheen, who hosted a talk show at state-owned broadcaster PTV, was shot dead at her home, allegedly by her husband.

Two years ago, the mutilated body of print journalist Tahira Nosheen was discovered in a hilly terrain in Pakistan's Punjab province.

According to the police, her former husband allegedly stabbed and shot her, and also threw acid on her face to destroy her identity.

Even as Ahsan's death has triggered outrage in Pakistan, it remains to be seen whether she will get justice.