LAHORE: The Lahore High Court’s Multan bench on Monday acquitted the younger brother of social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch of her murder after all prosecution witnesses resiled from their statements.

A trial court had on Sept 27, 2019 sentenced Waseem to life in prison and acquitted five people, including Mufti Abdul Qavi, of the murder charge.

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

Waseem had confessed before the police on July 16, 2019 that he had killed Qandeel in the name of honour. On Aug 21, 2019, the parents of Qandeel stated before the trial court that they had pardoned their sons, while on Aug 30 that year they said they had only nominated their sons under police pressure.

The convict’s mother submitted a statement before the bench saying she and her husband had forgiven their son Waseem and asked that he should be released.

The convict’s counsel Advocate Sardar Mehboob told Dawn the trial court had wrongly exercised its power and awarded punishment to Waseem under section 311 of PPC, despite the pardon given by legal heirs of deceased.

Justice Sohail Nasir of the LHC Multan bench allowed Waseem’s appeal and acquitted him of the murder charge.

Published in Dawn, February 15th, 2022