MULTAN: Mufti Abdul Qavi, who is an accused in the murder of social media celebrity Qandeel Baloch, will undergo a polygraph test today at the Punjab Science Forensic Agency after being shifted to Lahore from Multan.
The cleric will reach Lahore at 12pm and undergo the lie detector test at 4pm. The accused would be allowed to rest for four hours before the test for accurate test results.
Qavi is now in a four-day police remand after he was discharged from the Institute of Cardiology in Multan on Tuesday. He would be presented in the sessions court on Friday.
Judicial magistrate Mohammad Pervez had issued the warrants after investigation officer Noor Akbar requested the court to do so on the grounds that the cleric was not cooperating with the police.
The cleric was arrested on October 18.
Abdul Qavi was admitted to a Multan hospital after he complained of chest pain, hours after he was remanded into police custody. He also underwent angiography in the following days and was discharged on Tuesday.
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.
Model Qandeel Baloch, who rose to fame for her provocative selfies that polarised Pakistan, was strangled in July by her brother Muhammad Waseem for “bringing shame on the family”. He had confessed to his crime in a press conference after his arrest.
Prior to her death, Baloch, whose real name was Fauzia Azeem, was concerned about her safety and had appealed to the Interior Ministry to provide her with security.
No security was provided and the Interior Ministry has not commented on her death.
In his confession, Waseem claimed she had brought shame on the family and confessed to his crime in a press conference after his arrest. Later, a polygraph revealed that Waseem had help from his cousin Haq Nawaz and few others.
Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Yousaf suspended Mufti Qavi’s membership of Ruet-e-Hilal Committee after Baloch released pictures of herself with the cleric in a hotel room weeks before her murder, wearing his hat and pouting.
She had accused him of inappropriate behaviour.
“I thought I would expose him as he is in reality,” she told AFP at the time, adding: “He is a different person alone and different when he has his followers around him.”
She had faced frequent abuse and death threats.
The ‘honour-killing’ of Qandeel Baloch had sent shockwaves across the country and triggered an outpouring of grief on social media.
