MULTAN Oct 18 (TNS): A sessions court in Multan rejected cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi’s application for extension in his pre-arrest bail in the Qandeel Baloch murder case on Wednesday.
Before District and Sessions Judge Chaudhry Ameer Ahmad Khan announced his decision on the application, however, the cleric fled the court with the help of lawyers.
Mufti Qavi had appeared before the sessions court for the first time in connection with the murder case on Tuesday. On his lawyer’s request, the court had adjourned the hearing of the case till October 18 (today).
As the hearing went underway on Wednesday, the judge reserved his decision on the bail plea for a few minutes. During this period, a group of lawyers helped Mufti Qavi escape from the court, and he departed without talking to reporters.
The judge later rejected the application for extension in the cleric’s pre-arrest bail.
He also ordered the investigating officer to arrest Mufti Qavi and submit the challan of the Qandeel murder case in the court soon.
The investigation officer, Noor Akbar, said police would arrest Mufti Qavi and present him in the court in compliance with court orders.
While arriving at the court on Tuesday, Mufti Qavi had said that he had presented himself in the court as per orders.
“We will accept whatever decision the judiciary announces,” he said at the time.
Police had included Mufti Qavi’s name as a suspect in the murder case of the social media celebrity on the request of her father, Muhammad Azeem, the complainant in the case, who in a statement before the police suspected the cleric’s possible role in her murder.
Judge Ameer Ahmad Khan last week granted pre-arrest bail to Mufti Qavi shortly after a trial court issued his non-bailable arrest warrants in the Qandeel murder case.
Judicial Magistrate Muhammad Pervaiz Khan had issued non-bailable warrants for the arrest of Mufti Qavi when the investigation officer informed the court that he was not cooperating with police in investigation.
Soon after the non-bailable warrants were issued, the counsel for Mufti Qavi had filed a pre-arrest bail application and the judge granted bail against a surety bond of Rs100, 000.
Model and actress Qandeel Baloch was found strangled to death in her house in Multan’s Karimabad area on July 16, 2016. Her father claimed that she was killed by her younger brother, Waseem, in the name of honour.
Her brother Waseem was arrested by police in Dera Ghazi Khan later that night and confessed to killing her in the name of ‘honour’. Accompanied by police at a press conference, Waseem alleged to have drugged and strangled her, saying that she “brought dishonour to the Baloch name” due to her risque videos and statements posted on social media.
“There are other issues as well… Like the maulvi issue,” he said, in an apparent reference to a controversy last year about Qandeel’s selfies with Mufti Qavi.
Qavi’s selfies with Qandeel went viral on social media in 2016, causing a nationwide furore, after which the cleric’s membership of the Ruet-i-Hilal committee and the National Ulema Mushaikh Council was suspended.
