Court acquits Qandeel Baloch's brother

The Multan bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on Monday acquitted the key accused of Qandeel Baloch’s murder after the victim’s family pardoned him, Aaj News reported.

Waseem, the elder brother of Qandeel, was sentenced to life imprisonment by a model court in 2019 after he confessed to killing his sister. He was serving his punishment at the Multan Central Jail.

The trial continued for over three years. During the course of the hearing, Waseem’s lawyer argued that the court had ignored the affidavit submitted by Qandeel’s parents, which stated that they had forgiven the accused.

“The father of the victim has died. The witnesses in the case have also deviated from their statements in the trial court,” he added, appealing the court to quash the sentence against Waseem.

Consequently, Justice Sohail Nasir of the Multan sessions court acquitted Waseem.

The 2019 verdict

Qandeel was strangled to death in the name of honour in July 2016. The murder took social media by storm and prompted quick action from Punjab police. Soon after, Waseem was arrested and later confessed to killing Qandeel for “honour.”

In 2019, other arrested suspects, including cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi, Qandeel's other brother Aslam Shaheen, Haq Nawaz, Abdul Basit, and Mohammad Zafar Hussain, were released without charges.

“The prosecution successfully proved its case beyond a shadow of reasonable doubt through cogent, convincing and inspiring evidence against the accused of committing qatl-i-amd (wilful murder) of his sister Fouzia Ameen alias Qandeel Baloch in the shape of proving his presence at the place of occurrence, in the shape of judicial confession corroborated with positive results of his DNA. He is held guilty of committing qatl-i-amd of his sister,” read the detailed verdict issued then by the court.

On August 21, 2019, Qandeel’s parents submitted an affidavit in court, stating that they had forgiven the killers and wanted the case against their sons to be disposed of.