There are no moderate opinions when it comes to Aamir Liaquat; the man is positively doted on by a segment of Pakistani society and utterly despised by the other. The polarisation of opinions he provokes could make for a valuable academic case study in deconstructing public relevance and support.
Against declining appeal, many local public figures have attempted to regain lost popularity by undertaking attention-seeking activities or taking eccentric positions on a host of issues — many have failed, some have salvaged a little relevance, fewer still few have succeeded but no one has been able to repeatedly command the attention of the Pakistani populace like Aamir Liaquat.
The nearly 50-year-old is able to dominate headlines like no other.
True to form, #AamirLiaquatHussain has been a top trend on Twitter for the past few days. The reason for this recent spike is the leak of a shocking video featuring him — not independently verified but also not called fake by Liaquat — in a state of complete undress in his home, allegedly after the consumption of an illegal substance. This video was leaked a couple of days after news broke of the dissolution of his third (and most controversial) marriage to an 18-year-old girl named Dania Shah who cited various kinds of abuse as the reason for seeking an end to the union.
Though marriages at 18 years of age are legal, the fact that Liaquat has expressed views that young girls can be groomed to be married are extremely alarming. After their indecorous public split in the past week, his third wife also claimed in an interview to Digital Pakistan that she is younger than 18 years of age.
There should be no doubts around the depravity of grooming, especially when it comes from much older men; it is a sickening manifestation of paedophilia that is found far too commonly in a country that glorifies child-and-adult unions. There can be no defence of a predatory act that (in the context of this case) takes advantage of a stark class difference, a large age gap, and long-standing fame to ensnare a young teenage girl from a small city in Pakistan.
