Pakistan, June 5 -- The Sindh High Court's order directing protection for Hassan Buriro and Sidra Channa will be remembered less as relief for one newly married couple than as an indictment of a social order in which consent can still invite collective punishment. The couple approached the court after contracting a marriage of their own choice. Their relatives, according to reports before the court, allegedly responded by setting more than 100 homes on fire in Siddique Arain village near Jacobabad. The court has done what the law required. The question is why the law had to be invoked so urgently for a right that should never have been in doubt.

Marriage by consent is not an act of rebellion. Under Pakistani law, an adult person is entit...