Selfies with model takes away job from Pakistani cleric

A well-known Pakistani cleric was on Wednesday removed from an official assignment after snapping selfies with a liberal model.

Mufti Abdul Qavi’s Ruet-e-Hilal (moon sighting) Committee membership was suspended by the religious affairs ministry after he appeared with self-proclaimed model and singer Qandeel Baloch.

The decision was taken two days after a video and selfies of the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee member with social media sensation Qandeel Baloch took the Internet by storm.

The ministry has also directed the Ulema (clerics) and Mashaikh (scholars) Council to initiate inquiry against the Mufti.

Central Ruet-e-Hilal Committee of Pakistan is the department which announces the sighting of the new moon. The committee was set up in 1974 under a resolution passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan, and so far no rules and regulations for the functioning of the committee have been drafted in writing. Earlier on Tuesday, during a Senate Standing Committee on Religious Affairs session, Senator Hafiz Hamdullah took a dig at Mufti Qavi.

“If we can have Mufti Qavi in the Ruet-e-Hilal Committee, I think we can have Qandeel Baloch in this team as well,” he said.

In the pictures, Qandeel could be seen donning Mufti Qavi‘s hat while he is busy talking on the phone.

Mufti Qavi said that it was Qandeel herself who had expressed her wish to meet him in Karachi. “She wanted to have a meeting in order to get rid of a magic spell,” he said.

Meanwhile, Qandeel maintained that Mufti Qavi was the one who expressed his wish to meet her. “Why would I ask for a meeting with him in fact, he had told me during a television program that he would like to lay his eyes on my face before witnessing the moon of Ramzan,” she said.