Murder of Qandeel Baloch

Qandeel Baloch, born Fouzia Azeem on 1 March 1990 in Shah Sadar Din, Dera Ghazi Khan District, Punjab, Pakistan, was Pakistan's first major social media celebrity. She rose to prominence in 2013 after a widely shared audition for Pakistan Idol and became known for bold, often controversial videos and social media posts discussing her daily life and women's rights in Pakistani society. By 2014 she was a regular guest on Pakistani talk shows, and in June 2016 a meeting with senior cleric Mufti Abdul Qawi generated significant media controversy, leading to his suspension from a religious committee and increased public scrutiny of Baloch. The week before her death, she released a music video, "Ban," criticizing restrictions placed on women in Pakistan.

Following the controversy with Mufti Qawi, Baloch reported receiving death threats and held a press conference demanding police protection. At the end of June 2016, her passport and national identity card details, including her hometown and father's name, were broadcast in the media. Around 14 July 2016, she told a reporter from the Express Tribune that she feared for her life and planned to move abroad with her parents after the Eid al-Fitr holidays, having received no response to her requests for police protection.

On the night of 15–16 July 2016, at approximately 11:15 to 11:30 p.m., Baloch was drugged and then asphyxiated while asleep at her parents' home in Multan. Her death was initially reported as a shooting, but an autopsy determined she had been asphyxiated, with marks showing her mouth and nose had been pinned shut. Her father, Muhammad Azeem, reported her death and named her brothers Waseem and Aslam Shaheen in a First Information Report (FIR), stating they killed her over money. Waseem was arrested on 16 July 2016 and confessed, stating he killed his sister because she was "bringing disrepute to our family's honour" and that his brother was not involved.

Because the state was named as complainant in the case — a legal mechanism intended to prevent families from pardoning perpetrators of honour killings under Pakistan's diyya law — the case proceeded despite her parents' willingness to forgive their son. Mufti Abdul Qawi was named as an abettor in the FIR by Baloch's father. In September 2019, Waseem was sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder. In February 2022, his lawyer confirmed that a Pakistani appeals court had ordered his release, three years after his conviction, reportedly on the basis that Baloch's parents had agreed to pardon him under laws in effect at the time of the killing. Months after Baloch's murder, Pakistan's parliament passed legislation mandating imprisonment for perpetrators of honour killings regardless of family pardons.

Baloch's murder drew international condemnation from public figures and was cited by activists as emblematic of violence against women in Pakistan. Vigils were held in Lahore and Karachi. In November 2017, her father alleged to police that his life was in danger from those connected to his daughter's murder.