Daily Times

PTI Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday sent a Rs10 billion defamation notice to Health Minister Abdul Qadir Patel after the latter held a press conference claiming, among other things, that the ex-premier’s mental stability was questionable, a private TV channel reported. The notice served to Patel was sent under Section 8 of the Defamation Ordinance, 2002 for circulating “wrongful, baseless, false, misleading, erroneous, malicious and defamatory” information in his May 26 press conference.

“The press conference was watched in Pakistan as well as all over the world through electronic media channels, YouTube and various other social media platforms. Moreover, details regarding the press conference were also published in newspapers nationally as well as internationally,” the notice said. The notice said that Imran had sustained a head injury on the day of his “illegal arrest” on May 9 but there was no mention of it in the medical report shared by the minister.

It said that the medical report had emphasised “a lot” on Imran’s mental state but no details were provided of an examination being conducted in this regard. The notice said that Patel made the remarks “knowingly, consciously, willingly, deliberately and maliciously”. It added that the minister’s remarks were also in “violation of the standards and ethics which [a] member of the federal cabinet must possess.”

It said that Patel’s defamatory claims had caused damage to Imran’s good will, “injury to his reputation”, and had adversely affected his “honour”. “Likewise, you (Patel) have also caused emotional trauma, mental agony and anguish and distress to our client (Imran),” the notice added. The notice called on Patel to retract his statements “in the same mode and manner in which you made them in the first place” and tender an unconditional apology and admit “you have misstated”. It also called on the minister to pay Rs10bn, which would be donated to Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital and Research Centre, for defaming Imran and levelling false allegations against him. It called on Patel to refrain from making further defamatory comments.

The notice said that Imran would be compelled to initiate legal proceedings if the minister failed to take the aforementioned steps within 15 days.