Pakistan Court Acquits Brother After Confessing to Murdering His Sister

16-02-2022

Kirsten O’Connell

Pakistan and Human Rights Researcher

Global Human Rights Defence

On February 14th a Pakistani court acquitted Waseem Azeem for the murder of his sister, social media star Qandeel Baloch in 2016 (Aljazeera, 2022). Azeem was convicted and sentenced to life in imprisonment in 2019 but has since appealed, after his parents pardoned him under Islamic law. The murder of Baloch caused national outrage with Pakistani’s calling on the government to tighten laws dealing with men who kill close relatives in the name of family honour (Aljazeera, 2022). There are hundreds of women killed each year in Pakistan by family members, who have perceived offences of honour which include wearing particular clothing that goes against conservative Muslim values on female modesty (Aljazeera, 2022). Baloch became a social media star for her often bold and defiant personality and sexually provocative social media posts on Facebook. Azeem was arrested after her body was found by her mother Anwar Bibi in the early hours of July 16th, 2016. Azeem confessed to placing sedatives in the family food the night he strangled Baloch to death. When he answered a reporter on why he murdered her, Azeem went on to say, “She was doing videos on Facebook and dishonouring the family name of Baloch”. These “honour killings” are still considered murder in Pakistan, however, Islamic law allows a victims family to pardon the murder, which often then allows these perpetrators to escape punishment (Baloch, 2022). Baloch’s mother Bibi had submitted a statement in court that she pardoned her son Azeem. However, it is not clear yet if the court considered the mother’s statement in its decision (Aljazeera, 2022). However, Bibi did say to the press “I am happy over the acquittal of my son, but we are still sad for our daughter’s loss”. Now Azeem may well be walking free as early as this week. The notion of this has angered and disappointed many Pakistani women (Baloch, 2022). In the months after Baloch’s death the Pakistani parliament unanimously passed new legislation against “honour killings” which mandated life imprisonment, even if the victims relatives forgive the perpetrator. It was at the time seen as a major step in the right direction to holding these murders accountable and preventing them further (Baloch, 2022). Now, this acquittal of Azeem has essentially created a loophole for men like him to escape punishment. Nighal Dad a women’s rights activist who has observed Baloch’s case since 2016 has said “The state was a party in the case, and it is responsible and answerable to us [for] what happened, and it has to tell us how the killer was acquitted after the introduction of new law against honour killings”. Furthermore, she said that a judge has discretionary powers to decide in “honour killings” cases even if the parents pardon their son for killing their daughter. “This judgement shows the loopholes in our system and introduced law” (Baloch, 2022).

Sources:

Qandeel Baloch: Pakistan court frees brother for the killing. (2022, February 14). Aljazeera. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/2/14/pakistan-court-frees-man-convicted-of-honour-killing-of-sister

Baloch, S.M.B. (2022, February 14). Pakistan court acquits man who killed sister after parents’ pardon. The Guardian. Retrieved February 16, 2022, from https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/feb/14/pakistan-court-acquits-man-waseem-azeem-who-killed-sister-after-parents-pardon