Television anchorperson Rabia Ahsan was found dead with a gunshot wound inside her Rawalpindi home on Sunday, having presented her programme only the previous evening. The 41-year-old journalist leaves behind two daughters, a grieving family and questions that demand far more than the customary assurances of an impartial investigation. Her husband has been taken into custody, and police have recovered a firearm from the bedroom. His reported explanation that the weapon discharged accidentally must be examined against the forensic evidence. Conflicting preliminary accounts of the location of the gunshot wound make the post-mortem findings all the more important.
Pakistan has witnessed far too many deaths of women initially shrouded in confusion and disbelief, only for the questions surrounding them to be conveniently swept under the rug. Sara Inam was murdered by her husband in Islamabad in 2022. Noor Mukadam’s killing a year earlier shocked a country that had long comforted itself with the belief that education and privilege offered women some measure of protection. More recently, the death of Hina Javed at her in-laws’ Rawalpindi residence prompted the National Assembly’s Women’s Parliamentary Caucus to demand an impartial inquiry. According to the Sustainable Social Development Organisation, Pakistan recorded 32,617 gender-based violence cases in 2024, including 5,339 rape cases, 2,238 domestic violence cases and 547 honour killings. These are reported offences. Family pressure, financial dependence and fear of social disgrace can keep many others from ever entering official records.
And what of Rabia’s daughters? A mother who was there on Saturday is gone by Sunday. Their protection cannot be left to sympathetic statements from colleagues or the fleeting attention of television cameras. They need stable care, emotional support and the reassurance that their education and everyday lives will not be neglected. Above all, the children must not become exhibits in the public dissection of their parents’ lives. Punjab’s prompt deployment of senior police officers and forensic investigators is encouraging. CPO Hassan Mushtaq Sukhera’s undertaking of an impartial inquiry must now be followed by a thorough examination of the evidence, including witness statements, the post-mortem report and ballistic findings. The results should be communicated responsibly, without compromising the due requirements of a fair trial. Rabia spent years making her voice heard in a profession where women must often work twice as hard to be taken seriously. Her death deserves answers, not conjecture about her marriage or character
