Did You Know Qandeel Baloch's Murderer Brother Could Go Unpunished?
Pakistani model Qandeel Baloch was killed on Friday night. The murder happened in Multan in Punjab province and it is alleged that the killer was her own brother. Even if the police investigation proves thatBaloch was a victim of an honour killing her murderer may escape punishment. He may simply be pardoned by his kin despite recent progress on the legistative front for womens rights.
Just days after Pakistani model Qandeel Baloch enhanced her own notoriety by posting a video of herself "twerking", she was killed on Friday night. The murder happened in Multan, in Punjab province, and it is alleged that the killer was her own brother. Baloch was all of 26 years old.
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Even if the police investigation proves that Baloch was a victim of an "honour" killing, her murderer may escape punishment, despite recent progress on the legistative front for women's rights in Pakistan. He may simply be pardoned by his kin.
In March, Pakistan's Senate passed the Anti-Honour Killings Laws (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill, 2014, but the bill lapsed before it could be passed by the National Assembly, the Dawn reported.
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The legislation - in its current form - contains a loophole that murderers can use to go free: they may be pardoned by the victim's family members, even in open-and-shut cases. Since the killers are so often members of the victim's family, forgiveness is often granted, and crimes go unpunished.
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Police have said that Baloch's brother - her alleged assassin - had been threatening her over her Facebook posts, and that her family had told her to quit her modelling career, and stop posting provocative content on social networks.
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If Baloch's brother is indeed her killer, and if he is pardoned, the episode will only be the latest chapter in a long history of tragic "honour" killings in Pakistan. According to the country's Human Rights Commission, in 2014-15, over 2,000 women and girls were victims of honour killings in Pakistan. And men aren't safe either: last year, 88 men lost their lives in such incidents.
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More recently, an 18-year old woman was choked and burned alive by her own mother for marrying her lover, an adolescent who helped her friend elope was tortured, poisoned, and burned after a council of elders ordered her killing, and a woman slit the throat of her daughter who married for love. The long list of victims now contains the name of Fouzia Azeem, known to the world as Qandeel Baloch.