A combo image shows Hareem Shah slapping Mufti Qavi.

Tariq Butt, Correspondent

Social media star Hareem Shah has posted footage of her slapping controversial cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi after he allegedly engaged in a "vulgar” conversation with her.

In the video, which soon began doing the rounds on social media, Shah, who is one of Pakistan’s most followed TikTok stars, can be seen slapping the cleric, who is sitting on a bed.

She told a TV channel that she hit her "friend” after losing patience with him. "He spoke salaciously and we have recorded the whole conversation," the TikToker said.

Qavi, however, denied the accusation, saying he was only drinking tea when Shah slapped him. "There was a woman with Hareem Shah," the cleric said. "Shah slapped me and the other woman took the video."

#HareemShah became one of the top trends in Pakistan with netizens criticising Shah for physically assaulting the cleric.

"I have no regrets. If men like him are punished, there will not be rapes in Pakistan, she said.”

Qavi said he was unaware why Shah slapped him. He said he and Shah were invited to shoot for a TV programme in Karachi. "I was using my mobile phone in the hotel room when she suddenly came into the room and slapped me. She then left.”

Sometime back, Qavi was booked on the murder charge when another social media star Qandeel Baloch had been killed.

However, he was later acquitted by a court in Pakistani city of Multan.
In 2019, Prime Minister Imran Khan ordered a probe into how the TikTok star Hareem Shah was allowed into the premises of the Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad and provided the full service required to record a video that, as expected, went viral.

“I managed to get inside the premises and asked someone to please record the footage…I’m not aware of their position,” she had told a local television channel following the incident.

Responding to how she was able to get inside the premises, she had said, “Look I was granted permission and went in alone. I’m a Pakistani citizen and it is my right to have gone there…I did nothing wrong.”

Last year, Shah received backlash for her comments regarding federal minister Sheikh Rashid after a video recording of her conversation with him was leaked.