The peculiar case of Qandeel Baloch

The peculiar case of Qandeel Baloch

Dr. Jassim Taqui

For the first time, the civil society stood united on the murder of Qandeel Baloch by her own brother who claimed that he was compelled to kill her to avenge his honor. He was encouraged by the self-proclaimed guardian of faith who misuse blasphemy law to suppress, reform and life- style.  

Virtually all activists of the civil society demanded that the government should legislate anti-honor killing to deter people from committing these heinous crimes. A few days after the murder of Qandeel Baloch, the Parliament did legislate. However, two days after legislating anti-honor killings law, another case emerged when a husband killed his wife on the plea that she had been unfaithful despite the fact she was five months pregnant and  mother of four children.

In fact, the honor-killing is deep rooted among all the tribes of Pakistan. Hence, what is needed is to educate these tribes.

Viewing the official statistics of the budget, one can find that the government allocates less than 2 percent of the budget to education, which is a big joke.

Another aspect that should be taken into consideration is the continued state of suppression  among the people, which is supplemented by the squelch originated from successive government policies.

Qandeel Baloch challenged those policies and social taboos in her first phase of rebellion. She ridiculed them in the second phase. She had to pay a heavy price in her endeavor  to urge the people to fight for their rights to live their own life in compliance with their perception and within their own definition of moral values.