Qandeel Baloch murder: Brother gets life, Mufti Qavi and others acquitted

Acquitted accused include Qandeel's brother Aslam; third brother Arif declared proclaimed offender

MULTAN: A court on Friday convicted the brother of social media star Qandeel Baloch of her 2016 murder, a killing that sparked a change in laws and ignited fierce debate over the prevalence of 'honour killings' of women.

A court in Multan found Muhammad Waseem guilty of the murder and sentenced him to life imprisonment.

In the 38-page verdict, Judge Imran Shafi acquitted five other people, including another of Qandeel's other brothers, Aslam Shaheen, and Mufti Abdul Qavi, a cleric who remained a central figure in the murder investigation.

[sc name="state vs waseem"]

The other acquitted accused are Haq Nawaz, Abdul Basit and Muhammad Zafar Hussain. The court has now declared one more accused, Qandeel's third brother Arif, a proclaimed offender.

"Waseem has been given life in prison," the lawyer, Sardar Mehboob, told Reuters by phone, shortly after the verdict was delivered.

He added he would file an appeal against the verdict, which was delivered after hearings spanning a month less than four years.

Qandeel Baloch’s parents pardon accused sons, prosecution cries foul

Qandeel – born Fouzia Azeem – was found strangled to death in her house in Multan’s Karimabad area on July 16, 2016. Her father had accused Waseem of the murder, who admitted in a 2016 media conference that he strangled his 26-year-old sister due to her social media activities.

In August this year, Baloch’s parents, in their affidavit, maintained that they have pardoned their sons – Waseem and Aslam Shaheen – seeking their acquittal ‘for the mercy and approval of the Almighty’.

The prosecution, on the other hand, responded with a written statement, maintaining that pardoning the accused was not legally permissible in the honour killing cases.

Qandeel had posted risque Facebook posts in which she spoke of trying to change "the typical orthodox mindset" of people in Pakistan, where about 500 women are killed each year at the hands of family members over perceived damage to "honour".

She overcame frequent misogynist abuse and death threats to build a modelling career on the back of her social media fame.

Her selfies with Mufti Qavi went viral on social media, after which the cleric’s membership of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee and the National Ulema Mushaikh Council was suspended.

Her killing sent shockwaves across Pakistan and triggered an outpouring of grief on social media, and prompted the government to tighten laws to ensure that killers could not walk free if family members forgave them.

Sanam Maher - the author of the book "A Woman Like Her: The Short Life of Qandeel Baloch" - said the verdict sent a "powerful statement" but warned that it would take more than a court decision to reverse deep-seated prejudices.

"I don't think we can say that the court's verdict is going to fix everything. It's a band-aid on a bullet wound," Maher told AFP.

Women's rights experts say that enforcement of justice is often lax, with proceedings at times being drawn out while accused killers were freed on bail and cases faded away.

"It takes too long, people forget," said Farzana Bari, a women's rights advocate and founder of Pakistan's first gender studies department at a university, adding that even the high-profile Qandeel Baloch case had taken over three years to be resolved.

Though rights groups say reliable data is hard to establish, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan found at least 300 cases of so-called "honour killing" in 2018.

Many advocates say the actual number is far higher, with the Honour Based Violence Awareness Network estimating that Pakistan accounts for about a fifth of the 5,000 honour killings globally each year.

With additional input from Reuters and AFP.