ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigative Agency (FIA) on Thursday arrested Dania Shah, the widow of deceased televangelist-turned-politician, Amir Liaquat Hussain, for allegedly recording and uploading his “sexually explicit” videos on social media.
Hussain, 50, was found unconscious at his Karachi home on June 9 and was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. His death came weeks after he announced he would leave Pakistan following his a controversy surrounding his third marriage with Shah that led to intense criticism of the premier televangelist on mainstream and social media.
As his relations with Shah deteriorated, sexually explicit videos of Hussain went viral on social media. He blamed Shah in a video message that he shared on his social media accounts, of recording and leaking his private videos.
In various interviews, Shah accused Hussain of inflicting violence on her and using drugs and alcohol regularly during their brief relationship. He denied all charges.
At first, Hussain’s family refused to carry out an autopsy. Later, however, a court in Karachi ordered a postmortem examination of the Pakistani lawmaker and TV host.
In October, Hussain’s daughter from his first wife, Dua Aamir, filed a complaint against Shah, a copy of which is available with Arab News. Following that, the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing (CCW) Lodhran in Punjab carried out a raid on Shah’s house on Thursday night and arrested her.
In the FIR, Hussain’s daughter maintained that since Shah uploaded “obscene videos” of her father on social media to humiliate him, he went into depression which ultimately led to his death.
“It came on record that alleged Dania Bibi, d/o Malik Mukhtiar Ahmed being the third wife of deceased Aamir Liaquat recorded his obscene videos with intention to use these videos to humiliate him,” the first information report (FIR) read.
Dania’s mother Salma Bibi told Geo News that officials ‘barged’ into their house and arrested her daughter. Bibi added that she went to the police station but could not trace her daughter’s whereabouts.
Hussain, famous for combining religion and game shows, often courted controversy, most recently about his marriage to Shah, reportedly not of legal age, that ended within three months.
Hussain repeatedly denied charges of beating his wife and consuming intoxicants. However, the story was widely discussed in Pakistan and raised questions about his credentials as a religious expert, leading a teary-eyed Hussain to announce in a video before his death that he had decided to leave Pakistan for good.
