Pakistan, June 15 -- The addition of Section 302 to the FIR in the killing of nine-year-old Hania Ahmed is not a procedural footnote. Rather, it is the first serious acknowledgement that this case cannot be disposed of as a tragic mistake, a confused police chase or another entry in Punjab's growing ledger of "encounters." Hania, an Australian citizen of Pakistani origin, was visiting Pakistan with her family when Crime Control Department personnel allegedly opened fire on their car in Chakwal. A family that had reportedly been robbed at gunpoint found itself caught between criminals and the armed authority of the state.

The shift from Section 322 to Section 302 matters because it changes the legal character of the case from fatal misadv...