A court on Thursday indicted five suspects in the Qandeel Baloch murder case, including prime accused Waseem Azaam and Mufti Abdul Qavi in Multan.
Judge Sardar Iqbal Dogar of the sessions court resumed the hearing of the case and read out the charge seats to the suspects. All five accused pleaded not guilty after charges were read out.
The hearing will next be taken up on May 14.
Last year, Mufti Qavi was granted bail by a court in Multan. District and Sessions Judge Ameer Mohammad Khan had granted bail to Qavi on a Rs200,000 surety after listening to the argument of his counsel, Akbar Bhutta.
Azeem, Qandeel’s father, was also present during the hearing. Later while speaking to reporters outside the court, Bhutta said his client could be released today.
Qandeel was strangled to death by her brother Muhammad Waseem and cousin Haq Nawaz in the name of ‘honour’ in July 2016, weeks after posting selfies with Qavi on social media.
Qavi was arrested after a court rejected an extension to his pre-arrest bail. The police declared Qavi as a suspect in the case at the request of Azeem, Qandeel’s father. Azeem alleged that his daughter was killed on Qavi’s orders and that the cleric had offered him money to drop charges against him.
Qandeel born Fouzia Azeem was found strangled to death in her house in Multan’s Karimabad area on July 16, 2016. At that time, her father had claimed that she was killed by Waseem, her younger brother.
Waseem was arrested by the police in Dera Ghazi Khan later that night and confessed to killing her sister in the name of ‘honour’. At a press conference organised by the police, Waseem confessed to have drugged and strangled her.
Two more accused in the case, taxi driver Basit and Aslam Shaheen, another brother of the deceased, are on bail, while Arif, yet another accused, had been declared a proclaimed offender.
