The killing
Wali Khan Babar was a 28-year-old television journalist working for Geo News. On January 13, 2011, he was shot dead in Karachi's Liaquatabad area as he was driving home from work. Reporting on the case linked his journalism to politically sensitive subjects, including violence, extortion and land disputes in Karachi.
The murder quickly became emblematic of the dangers faced by Pakistani journalists. It was not only the killing itself that drew attention, but what happened to people connected to the investigation afterward.
A prosecution surrounded by violence
Dawn and international press-freedom reporting documented the killings of multiple people connected to the case, including witnesses and police personnel. By the time the trial moved forward, threats had affected investigators, prosecutors and witnesses, creating extraordinary security concerns.
The case was transferred away from Karachi. The Sindh High Court ordered the trial moved to an anti-terrorism court sitting at Shikarpur Central Prison because of threats surrounding the proceedings.
The 2014 anti-terrorism court judgment
On March 1, 2014, an anti-terrorism court convicted six defendants in Babar's murder. Contemporary reporting said two — Faisal Mehmood, also known as Faisal Mota, and Kamran, also known as Zeeshan — received death sentences in absentia. Four other defendants received life imprisonment. A seventh accused, Shakeel, was acquitted for lack of evidence.
Dawn described the judgment as the first conviction for the killing of a Pakistani journalist in a case of this kind. The significance of that moment, however, did not eliminate later procedural questions.
Why the absentia convictions mattered
Faisal Mota was arrested in 2015 after having been sentenced to death while absent. He challenged the sentence in the Sindh High Court, arguing that the anti-terrorism law did not permit the death penalty to be imposed against him in absentia in the manner used at trial.
Some 2017 reports initially stated that his sentence had been overturned and a retrial ordered. Geo News later corrected that account, reporting that the Sindh High Court had instead scheduled further hearing of the appeal. This page follows the corrected version rather than repeating the earlier erroneous report.
A second absentia defendant is arrested
Kamran alias Zeeshan was arrested years later. In July 2020, The News reported that the Sindh High Court admitted his appeal against the death sentence imposed in absentia and issued notice to prosecutors. The report also said connected appeals from the earlier convictions remained before the High Court.
That procedural history makes a simple “solved and final” label misleading. There was a major trial judgment and multiple convictions, but later arrests opened legal challenges to sentences originally entered without those defendants present.
What is established and what remains procedural
The established public record supports that Wali Khan Babar was murdered in Karachi, that an anti-terrorism court convicted six defendants in 2014, and that two capital sentences were imposed in absentia while four other defendants received life terms. It also supports that the later arrests of the absentia defendants produced appeals.
In this review I did not locate a newer, authoritative final appellate merits ruling resolving every connected conviction and sentence. Crime by Region therefore keeps the broader case under Unsolved / Partial rather than overstating finality.
Timeline
January 13, 2011: Wali Khan Babar is shot dead while returning home from work in Karachi.
2011–2013: arrests and prosecutions proceed amid killings and threats affecting people connected to the case.
March 1, 2014: an anti-terrorism court convicts six defendants; two receive death sentences in absentia and four receive life imprisonment.
March 2015: Faisal Mota is arrested and later challenges the sentence imposed in his absence.
2017: the Sindh High Court continues hearing Mota's appeal; Geo corrects an earlier report that had described the sentence as already overturned.
June–July 2020: Kamran alias Zeeshan is arrested and the Sindh High Court admits his appeal against the absentia death sentence.
Current status
The Wali Khan Babar murder case is Partially adjudicated. The 2014 trial produced six murder convictions, but later arrests and appellate proceedings created unresolved questions about the final status of some sentences. No later comprehensive final merits ruling resolving all connected appeals was verified in this review.