Pakistan, Oct. 14 -- In two judgments delivered barely a week apart, the Supreme Court has revisited a question that continues to trouble Pakistan's legal and social order: how much say a woman has over her own marriage. On October 7, a five-member bench recognised serious and irreconcilable marital discord, or shiqaq, as grounds for dissolution even without proof of cruelty. On Tuesday, another bench dismissed the review petition of Muhammad Kamran, sentenced to death for murdering a woman after she refused his marriage proposal.

Justice Muhammad Hashim Khan Kakar's nine-page judgment deserves particular attention for its treatment of consent. The court rejected Kamran's attempt to present rejection as provocation warranting leniency. Q...