ISLAMABAD:Actor Osman Khalid Butt on Monday challenged the acquittal of slain social media celebrity and model Qandeel Baloch’s brother in her murder case in the Supreme Court, pleading that the high court’s judgement on the matter was “sketchy, illegal” and in “contravention of the law”.
The petition was moved through Barrister Khadija Siddiqui under Article 184(3) of the Constitution and prayed the apex court to set aside the Lahore High Court’s judgement that acquitted Muhammad Waseem of his sister’s murder and restore the trial court’s verdict that declared him a convict.
A model court in Multan had convicted Waseem in 2019 and sentenced him to life imprisonment after finding him guilty of killing Baloch, said to have been murdered in the name of honour. He was acquitted by the LHC earlier this month after serving less than six years in prison.
The decision was widely criticised on social media and Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice Maleeka Bokhari said around a week after the acquittal that the law ministry planned to challenge the verdict.
The petition filed in the SC on Monday stated that the LHC had acquitted Waseem on the basis of a “compromise”, after Waseem moved an application against his conviction in the LHC.
The petition contended that the LHC’s judgement “allowed the perpetrators of honour killings to avoid punishment by seeking forgiveness” and “essentially endorses such barbarism”. Consequently, it argued, “the eternal loophole which assumedly had been rectified by the Criminal Law Amendment (Offences in the Name or Pretext of Honour) Act, 2016, stood nullified in light of the impugned Judgement, thereby enabling regressive interpretation of the law”.
“Furthermore, due to acceptance of the aforementioned compromise, no one is in a position to pursue the case on behalf of the deceased and come forth to contest the injudicious acquittal of the accused which disrespects the equal application of the law and undermines the general public’s confidence, faith and trust in our criminal justice system,” the petition read.
Outlining various aspects that need to be reviewed in relevance to the case, the petition termed the LHC’s judgement “sketchy, illegal, bad in the eyes of law” and “liable to be set aside”.
The petition argued that the high court’s judge had “failed to properly consider the settled principles with regard to acquittal of the accused”, and the court had “arbitrarily and erroneously” accepted Waseem’s appeal for his acquittal “without appreciating the material facts of the instant case”.
The judgement, it said, was the result of “misreading and non-reading of the material on the file”.
“While extending the benefit of the doubt to the accused … [the court] diminished salient features which make the prosecution case reliable and trustworthy,” the petition stated, adding that there was insubstantial use of the sufficient evidence available on record to incriminate the accused.
The plea further contested that the principle of fasad-fil-arz (mischief on earth) — which is covered under Section 311 of the Pakistan Penal Code and under which Waseem was convicted — was applicable to the case as it was a case of honour killing.
