Pakistan had a rough week. TikTok star slaps a mufti and army chief lines up for omelette

Bigg Boss-watching Mufti Abdul Qavi is no stranger to controversy in Pakistan. His life is a cocktail of deen, desire and disaster.

Pakistan's Mufti Abdul Qavi and TikTok star Hareem Shah | Photo: TikTok screengrab

If the news of simpleton Pakistan Army Chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa waiting in a queue for a plate of egg omelette at a club in Islamabad didn’t make you cry, then I don’t know what will. How about another newsy nugget, the one that involves Mufti Qavi being slapped by a TikTok star whom the cleric had allegedly harassed, resulting in him losing the title of Mufti. I bet you are crying now.

A tale of an omelette and a slap. Pakistani journalists are brave to report on the humbleness of a man who held his own plate for an omelette and sought no help, definitely a first in history. And Pakistani TikToker Hareem Shah talking about the slap to a ‘pious’ man definitely won’t be a last in history.

Mufti Abdul Qavi is no stranger to controversy. His life is a cocktail of deen, desire and disaster. He calls himself a celestial being, much like someone who walked straight out of the sets of Lucifer. Qavi has worn many influential hats over the years: he has been a member of the government moon-sighting body Ruet-e-Halal and also a member of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) till 2016. Add being a regular star guest on television talk shows. But his life’s mission is to teach, as he has repeatedly claimed, but his desires seem to get the better of him every time. Or so it seems.

In one such ‘good deed’ that the Mufti was said to be performing, he ended up getting ‘beaten with shoes’ by Hareem Shah, who later said that the person who slapped Qavi in the viral clip was her cousin. The TikTok star is often in the news for claiming to hold the lifeline for many government ministers, often threatening to leak their video and audio calls. It’s not only TikTok, she even has access to the foreign office.

Hareem also leaked Mufti’s video call where he’s heard making travel plans for a talk show with her: “If you agree to take me in as your ‘caliphate’, I am ready to stay for the night. We will stay together until the morning prayer.” At the end of the call, Mufti sahib asks Hareem if she has read the Kalima and kisses her goodbye. Now call this deen aur duniya ka haseen imtizaj (combination).

مفتی صاحب سُدھر جاؤ ورنہ PC Hotel کراچی کی وڈیوبھی لئیک کرونگئ ..#HareemShah #HareemVsQavi #Hareemshahscandal @kirannaz_KN pic.twitter.com/IAj6siHoX9

— Hareem Shah Official (@hareemshah_12) January 20, 2021

Dealing with the backlash, Qavi’s family announced that the title Mufti has been taken away from him because he has brought disrepute to the family. Actually, his “thoughts were not in his control.” Anyway, the family locked him up in a room, and took away his mobile phone, declaring him ‘mentally ill’. His doctor thought otherwise. It turns out that 2021 is not the year of ex-Mufti sahib.

Controversies and Qavi go hand in hand

Mufti Qavi sahib first shot to fame in a Pakistan television talk show with Indian Bigg Boss contestant Veena Malik. Qavi, the man of higher power, told Malik that her portrayal in the reality show was unbecoming of a good Muslim and had put proud Pakistanis to shame. And then in a heated discussion, Mufti, who apparently had binge-watched Bigg Boss, time and again spoke of behen Veena Malik’s “husn o jamal” (beauty). A perturbed Veena took him on and exposed the hypocrisy of the clergy who keeps mum when children are raped in madrassas, asking: Mufti sahib yeh kya baat hui?

The wheel was set in motion by news channels of preachy aalims (religious scholars) who give fatwas against women who are already soft-targets in a patriarchal society.

Since then, Mufti Qavi has acted as a self-proclaimed spiritual leader of popular women in show business. The man who will show them the path of morality, which they have strayed from. Notwithstanding his own strayed path. His selfies, videos and talk shows with slain Pakistani social media star Qandeel Baloch and the subsequent naming in her ‘honour killing’ took a dark turn.

Qandeel accused Qavi of trying to kiss and hug her: “I know you can’t trap a girl in the first meeting. As our relationship develops, we will become more open with each other,” he had said to her. While several questioned Qavi’s inappropriate behaviour towards Qandeel, he was thrown out of the moon-sighting body and the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf revoked his membership. Commenting on Qandeel’s death, he had said, “I forgave her but this is a lesson for people who try to disgrace aalims.”

Declaring alcohol halal is also an achievement of Mufti Qavi. Any drink, according to him, that contains less than 40 per cent alcohol is halal. “If tobacco paan is halal, then so are today’s beverages.” Others disagreed on this too with him. Qavi is also an expert on how couples must maintain their marital relationship during the Covid pandemic. It is only after brushing your teeth, drinking warm water or milk, and taking a bath that both husband and wife can have sex. If they follow this, Qavi assured, they won’t have to worry about Covid-19. How many couples can vouch for Mufti’s spiritual guidance on this, we wonder.

Is colourful Mufti’s time up? Or will he re-emerge to win back his lost glory and get in some fresh trouble soon? Only time will tell.

The author is a freelance journalist from Pakistan. Her Twitter handle is @nailainayat. Views are personal.