A cleric who allegedly beat his eight-year-old pupil to death at a seminary in Karachi's Bin Qasim Town area on Sunday was pardoned by the victim's family on Monday, Station House Officer Dhani Bux Marri said.

Despite the pardoning, police nonetheless proceeded to register a first information report (FIR) against the accused on behalf of the state under Section 322 of the Pakistan Penal Code.

Mohammed Hussain had allegedly been subjected to corporal punishment by Qari Najmuddin in the past, after which he had run away from the seminary.

His parents, however, brought him back to the seminary on Friday. When the student tried to flee again, Qari Najmuddin got hold of him and allegedly beat him to death with a blunt weapon.

He was taken into custody, but the victim's parents were reluctant to press charges and had even refused to allow a post-mortem examination to be conducted on the child's body.

Corporal punishment is prohibited in Sindh under a law passed by the provincial assembly in February 2017.

The said law gives children protection against punishments to cause pain or discomfort by hitting, smacking, slapping, spanking, kicking, shaking or throwing a child; scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing their ears; or forcing child to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion by any person in the family, workplace, in schools, other educational institutions, etc.