ISLAMABAD // The father of murdered Pakistani social media star Qandeel Baloch has vowed no forgiveness for his son, who killed his daughter on the pretext of “honour”.
Last week, Pakistan passed long-awaited legislation aimed at closing loopholes which allowed murderers like Baloch's brother Waseem to walk free. The loophole allowed perpetrators in so-called honour killings to escape punishment – even the death sentence – if the victim's family opted to forgive him. Since the victim and killer were often from the same family, the law as it stood enabled murderers to go unpunished.
Hundreds of women are killed in conservative Pakistan each year in the name of preserving so-called family “honour”. But it was the revulsion over the murder of 26-year-old Qandeel Baloch -who had become a celebrity through her social media postings – that prompted Pakistan’s prime minister Nawaz Sharif to promise reform.
The change in the law came three months after Baloch’s death in July. Her brother, Waseem Azeem, confessed to drugging his sister before strangling her. “I am not embarrassed at all over what I did,” he said, calling his sister’s behaviour “intolerable”.
His parents said they had also been drugged on the night of the murder. Muhammad Azeem, father to both Qandeel and Waseem, declared his son deserved to “shot on sight.”
Mr Azeem and his wife, Anwar Mai said they were unaware of the change in the law but it appears it would have made no difference. Mr Azeem called for his son and three other men accused of him to be punished as soon as possible.
“There is no pardon from our side,” he said. “They should get life imprisonment or death – I will feel happy.”
His wife said their son had not understood the repercussions of his actions. He thought his parents would be the only complainants in the case, meaning he was almost certain to evade serious punishment.
Waseem thought he would be jailed for just “two to three months and then after he will be free. He was not aware that this would become a high-profile case”, said his mother.
The death of Baloch, polarised Pakistani society. The photographs, videos and message she posted on social media site were sometimes risqué. But they made her a household name.
The new law imposes a mandatory 25-year jail sentence on such crimes. Human rights activists, who for years called for tougher laws to tackle violence against women, have praised the move as a step forward, though lawyers criticised the amendments for not going far enough. Such crimes should also be re-categorised, said criminal law professor Abira Ashfaq. “ We should call it something negative – patriarchal/misogynist crime, rather than an ‘honour’ killing, which associates a positive value with this type of crime.”
* Agence France-Presse
