Pakistan to close 'honour killing' loophole after Qandeel Baloch murder

Pakistan is set to close a loophole allowing people who commit so-called "honour killings" to go unpunished in the wake of the high-profile murder of Qandeel Baloch (pictured above).

The practice was outlawed more than a decade ago but the victim's family are legally allowed to pardon the killer and help them evade prosecution.

The planned legislation was announced by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's daughter, Maryam, an increasingly influential member of his party.

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"We have finalised the draft law in the light of negotiations," she told Reuters. It could be put before parliament within a matter of weeks.

Baloch, a 26-year-old social media star, was killed by her brother, Waseem, in the Punjab province earlier this month. He confessed to strangling her to death while their parents were asleep upstairs because "girls are born to stay at home". He was "proud" of what he did, he added.

He has since been arrested and charged with crimes against the state, which means he cannot be pardoned even if his family forgives him for the murder.

Baloch was a household name in Pakistan for her "bold, unapologetic videos celebrating her sexuality". Her huge popularity exposed the "deeply ingrained misogyny and hypocrisy" that cuts across Pakistan, Shaista Aziz writes for the Globe and Mail.

"[Pakistani men] watched her videos behind closed doors with glee, and then hissed and cursed her publicly for her so-called 'un-Islamic and filthy ways'," she says.

"In a country with reportedly one of the highest Google searches for pornography in the world, Ms. Baloch became the target for the self-proclaimed male and female moral and religious police."

More than 1,000 women were killed for "honour" in 2015, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. One woman reportedly had her throat slit by her brother after she was accused of talking to a man on the phone.