PESHAWAR: The federal government has announced to pursue Qandil Baloch murder case and would file an appeal against the acquittal of the main accused by the Multan Bench of the Lahore High Court (LHC) on 14 February.
Law Minister Farogh Naseem said that a petition will be submitted to the Supreme Court against the judgment of the High Court for which the Ministry of Law and Justice and Punjab Prosecutor General have completed preparations.
Read more: LHC acquits prime accused in Qandil Baloch murder case
The minister said that the judicial reforms have started bearing fruits as the culprits behind the Motorway Rape, Zainab Rape and other rape cases have been punished. The law minister also announced the government will also follow the Usman Mirza case.
The Multan Bench has acquitted Wasim, the main accused in Qandil Baloch’s murder case along with other suspects. He was earlier sentenced to life imprisonment by Multan Model Court on September 27, 2019. Advocate Sardar Mehboob, who defended Wasim in the case said that all the witnesses have backtracked from their earlier statements in the case. He said an affidavit was submitted to the court on behalf of Qandil Baloch’s father, saying that they have pardoned Wasim for the sake of Allah, therefore the court should acquit him.
Qandil Baloch was killed by his brother Wasim on July 15, 2016 in the name of “honour”. Baloch’s murder case was registered a day after his murder. Waseem had confessed after his arrest that he had committed the crime, saying that “Qandil was causing disgrace to his family” but later when he was formally charged, he deviated from confession.
The accused in the case also included Aslam Shaheen, as well as his close relatives Haq Nawaz, Zafar Iqbal, Muhammad Arif, Mufti Abdul Qawi and Abdul Basit. Wasim and Haq Nawaz were the main accused in the case while Abdul Basit was a taxi driver and was accused of helping the accused to escape after the murder of Qandil Baloch.
The case was transferred from the District and Sessions Judge’s Court of Multan to Model Court so that it could be decided as soon as possible. The court had earlier maintained that in cases of “honour killings”, request for pardon by the victim family would not be accepted.