Dr Aamir Liaquat Hussain

Indeed, during the days of Ramazan nothing can be said to be certain, except death, taxes, and the frighteningly charming and inveigling presence of Aamir Liaquat on our TV screens.

What do we know about Aamir Liaquat?

We know Liaquat brews a stew of savagery and sophistication. In one fell swoop, he can sauté his guest. We saw this in 2008, when Asian Human Rights Commission filed a petition deeming Liaquat’s cajoling and coaxing as having led to the killing of two Ahmadis, Pakistan’s most persecuted minority.

We know that his admirers come in all shapes, sizes, income brackets.

We know that Liaquat can acquire academic degrees at a more accelerated rate than the average student – securing a PhD degree reportedly three weeks after obtaining a Masters degree, just in time to contest 2002’s general election.

But perhaps that is no cunning trick of his own; after all, the degree-issuant university, The Trinity College and University of Spain’s website reads ‘get your degree today’ – quite literally.

We know that Liaquat’s reputation suffers from selective emphasis. That he recognises the perfect business synergies between his likes (religion and its power over people) and his dislikes (the Pakistani cricket team’s failed attempts at victory), and he sets about turning the one into the other (blaming the cricket team’s misgivings on the fields to the green-colour soles lining their sneaker’s – green being a color oft-associated with and venerated by Islam).

And now, following the leaked, beguiling YouTube clip, rapidly circulating amongst Pakistanis, both in and out of the country, we have more revelations on Pakistan (and Pervez Musharraf’s) favourite Islamic preacher and televangelist.

Without questioning the authenticity of the video itself – we now go to bed at night secure in the knowledge that Liaquat is a normal, flawed human like the rest of us.

That he swears like a sailor like many of us.

That he often vaingloriously fusses over his shiny mane of hair like those of us with hair.

That, like some of us, he is prone to channelling his pre-on air jitters into a rapturous burst of song – much to the obvious chagrin of his seemingly terrified guests.

That, during discussions of heightened sensitivity, like many of us, Liaquat too cannot curb his unease, and instead bursts into awkward laughter.

We also know that Liaquat (like many of us?) ne Ghalib dekhi huee hai.

As expected, two days after the expose, Liaquat took to his show with a reply to the video and its allegations.

Pointing a covert finger at ex-employer, while admonishing the cunning intricacy of those who ‘beautifully’ dubbed and edited the whole thing, Liaquat conducted a sermon on destructive jealousy (hasad).

Irrespective of the value of fact vs fiction war that now begins, really, the leaked behind-the-scene footage comes as no real surprise.

Many a time in the past, TV’s most notorious televangelist has shot himself in the foot (also occasionally, almost in the head) with his rhetoric and with his actions.