Social Media famed, Pakistani influencer Qandeel Baloch’s murderer got acquitted from City court of East Multan, after just spending six years in jail.
Baloch was murdered in 2016 by her very own brother in an ‘Honour Killing case.’ Her brother accused her of “outraging the modesty” of his family after which he strangled her to death with no remorse, after which he was given a penalty of a life sentence, but now he has been acquitted and will be released next week.
In 2019, Muhammad Waseem, Baloch’s brother appealed against his murder conviction and life sentence.
“He has been fully acquitted,” by a court in the eastern city of Multan, his lawyer Sardar Mehboob told AFP news agency.
Mufti Abdul Qawi, a scholar who was arrested for his alleged involvement in the murder, was also later freed as police said they could not establish a link to the murder.
Baloch had built her career in modelling after getting social media fame for her photos and videos which were again considered as ‘immodest and indecent by the Islamic fundamentalists of Pakistan. Her dressing and way of life was often considered ‘offensive’ and received many rape and death threats in past. However, Baloch often used to post about, ‘challenging the orthodox mindset of Pakistanis,’ on her social media before she was murdered by her own brother.
This sensational murder soon became a high profile case after which the Pakistani parliament passed a law against ‘honour killing’ and prevented the accused from seeking any kind of relief or pardon from the victim’s family.
However, a major catch in this law here is, that the motivation of murder depends on the judgement of the court, hence the alleged culprit can acquire pardon from the family on a different pretext of committing the murder other than ‘honour killing’.
A similar thing happened with Wassim also, initially, Qandeel’s mother was amended to get justice and appealed to the court to not show any mercy to her culprits. However, in due course of time, she herself pardoned her son and asked the courts for the same.
