Model court rejects pardon plea of Qandeel’s parents

MULTAN: Model Court Judge Imran Shafi rejected a pardon plea of the parents of social media star Qandeel Baloch, who was allegedly murdered by her brothers three years ago.

Her parents had filed an application with the Model Court, saying that they had forgiven the killers and the case against them should be quashed.

On Thursday, Qandeel’s father and mother appeared in the court and recorded their statements of forgiving their accused sons and signed their statements. he judge asked from them that whether they were going to pardon all accused or their sons because it would affect the case. To it, the parents told the court that they were going to pardon their sons only, not all the accused.

The prosecution stated that the case of honour killing was registered with Muzaffarabad police station (Multan) on July 16, 2016.

Qandeel's brother Waseem had strangled her for honour in their house in 2016. Later, he confessed to committing the crime. Qandeel’s another brother Aslam Shaheen was also nominated in the case.

The defence lawyer contended that the incident of honour killing occurred in July 2016 while change in the related law was introduced on October 22, 2016. Therefore, the law had no effect to the case, he added. He said that Qandeel murder case was not a case of honour killing.

He said the police did not include Section 311 of honour killing at the time of registration of the FIR, but it was added in supplementary police investigation report.

After hearing arguments, the judge dismissed the pardon application and adjourned the hearing till August 24 with the remarks that the Criminal Amendment Bill 2016, relating to honour killing, does not allow the complainant to withdraw the case or pardon the accused. Now, the state will be the plaintiff and it will pursue the case.