MULTAN: A trial court on Friday sentenced the younger brother of slain social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch to life in prison in her murder case. The court acquitted five people, including Mufti Abdul Qavi, of the charge.

The Muzaffarabad police submitted a challan on the complaint of Mohammad Azeem, the father of Qandeel, nominating seven people — Mohammad Waseem, Aslam Shaheen and Mohammad Arif (brothers of Qandeel), Haqnawaz, Abdul Basit aka Basu, Abdul Qavi and Zaffar Hussain — stating that on July 15, 2016 they had strangled his daughter.

On July 16, Waseem admitted before the police that he had killed Qandeel in the name of honour, saying that Haqnawaz was an abettor in the murder case. He also said that his sister had bad character being a social media model and that he had no guilt over killing her. He got the same statement recorded before the area magistrate.

Trial court acquits Mufti Qavi and four others for want of circumstantial evidence

The accused told the police that his brother Mohammad Arif, who is in Saudi Arabia, had asked him to kill Qandeel as he (Arif) felt ashamed due to her conduct and asked him to come to Saudi Arabia after killing her.

Co-accused Haqnawaz also confessed before the police that he had gagged Qandeel while Waseem held down her hands.

Mufti Qavi, Zaffar, Basit and Haqnawaz were involved in the case through supplementary statements of the complainant. Azeem nominated his sons Wasim and Aslam Shaheen as prime accused.

On Aug 21 this year, the parents of Qandeel stated before the trial court that they had pardoned their sons, while on Aug 30 they said they had nominated their sons on police pressure. Their plea was that since the anti-honour killing laws (criminal amendment bill) 2015, which bar pardoning killers in such cases, had been passed several months after the killing of their daughter, these could not be applied in this case.

In January 2017, the Muzaffarabad police lodged an FIR against the parents of Qandeel for retracting their statement against their son Aslam Shaheen.

Azeem alleged that his daughter was killed on Mufti Qavi’s orders and that the cleric had offered him money for dropping charges against him.

In October 2017, Mufti Qavi was arrested and later released on bail. In May last year, the court indicted five people, including Mufti Qavi, in the case. All of them pleaded not guilty.

The defence counsel called the murder blind, saying that their clients had been implicated in the case falsely and the police had dubbed a blind murder case honour killing. Waseem retracted from his confessional statement before the magistrate, saying that his statement was a result of police pressure.

“The crux of the discussion so far is that prosecution has successfully proved the case of murder of Fauzia Azeem, alias Qandeel Baloch, against accused Mohammad Waseem through judicial confession corroborated by the DNA analyses beyond shadow of reasonable doubt,” Judge Imran Shafi Khan read out the verdict.

“As far as the involvement of remaining accused persons, except Waseem and Aslam Shaheen, is concerned they were nominated through the supplementary statement which though was recorded well in time, there is no convincing circumstantial evidence available on the file to the extent of accused persons namely Haqnawaz, Abdul Basit alias Basu, Mohammad Zaffar, Mohammad Abdul Qavi and Aslam Shaheen,” said the verdict.

The court stated that Qandeel was brutally murdered by Waseem in the name of honor so he is convicted under Section 311 of the Pakistan Penal Code after compounding of right of Qisas in Qatl-i-Amd and sentenced to undergo imprisonment for life.

The court said the case property along with last worn clothes and personal belongings of the deceased would remain intact till the arrest of Arif, the brother of Qandeel.

The verdict was announced 38 months after the murder. On Aug 3, the case was transferred to the model court which continued hearing on a daily basis. Up to 35 witnesses got their statements recorded.

Mufti Qavi told reporters that he along with other accused had been acquitted due to unavailability of evidence.

Published in Dawn, September 28th, 2019