LAHORE (Web Desk) – The State on Monday have barred the family of social media celebrity Qandeel Balouch from pardoning the nominated killers by adding Sections 311 and 305 of the Pakistan Penal Code to the FIR.
According to the investigating officer, the State has become complainant in Qandeel’s murder and transformed the FIR of her murder into a non-compoundable FIR, making it impossible for Qandeel’s family to pardon her killers.
Advocate Balak Shair Khosa said “There cannot be an agreement [after this]. These sections were created to end karo-kari. Now that they have added them to the FIR, the victim’s family cannot forgive the killers as the state has become a complainant. It will be taken as a murder against the state.”
Section 305, maintains the wali (guardian) will be the heirs of the victim, but will exclude the accused or convict in case of qatl-i-amd (wilful murder) if committed in the name or on the pretext of honour.
Section 311 refers to the legal proceedings following the waiver or the compounding of the right of qisas (bounty for the murder in the Islamic Sharia law) in wilful murder.
“Notwithstanding anything contained in Section 309 or Section 310… the Court may, having regard to the facts and circumstances of the case, punish an offender against whom the right of qisas has been waived or compounded with death, or imprisonment for life, or imprisonment of either description for a term of which may extend to fourteen years as ta’zir,” reads Section 311.
Qandeel, who was a model and an actress, was strangled to death in her house in Multan’s Karimabad area in the early hours of Saturday. Her father claimed that she was killed by her younger brother, Waseem, in the name of honour.
Waseem, accompanied by police, confessed in a press conference that he had drugged and strangled his sister, adding that the motive behind the murder was that “she brought dishonour to the Baloch name” due to risque videos and statements that she posted on social media.
