Daily Times

In a dramatic twist of events, Ayesha Ahad, who claims to be Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif’s daughter-in-law, served a legal notice on Monday to Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanuallah for making “highly defamatory” comments regarding her character.

Ahad claims to have been married to Hamza Shabaz Sharif in 2010 before she was abandoned by her alleged spouse. She has repeatedly come forward with complaints of being victimised for pursuing her case and has reported serious attacks by armed pillion riders that targeted her and her daughter at least twice. She has also complained of being victimised by the Lahore police.

Ahad gathered immense support from PTI leaders, namely Firdous Ashiq Awan and Yasmin Rashid and Khan himself. She asked in her press conference, held earlier on Saturday, “When will Mian Sahib make a committee for his daughter-in-law?”

Ahad’s advocate Ali Zia Bajwa, sent a notice demanding Sanaullah to retract his “malicious” statements within 7 days and render an apology for his allegation. According to the legal notice, the PML-N member on Sunday had called Ahad a ‘peshaa-war aurat [woman of profession]’ in Urdu, which it said “connotes a woman pursuing the oldest profession or […] a woman engaged in prostitution”. Sanaullah had also accused Ahad of making false claims regarding her marriage for the sake of financial benefits.

Ahad has “suffered immensely in her reputation and has also been lowered in the estimation of her friends and the general public,” reads the notice. It demands that Sanaullah pay Ahad Rs200 million as damages for tarnishing her image, failing which legal proceedings would be pursued against him.

She said that she would also file a reference against Hamza this week, contending that by “concealing his marriage with her” the MNA was no more “Sadiq and Amin” and should be disqualified.

The PTI on Sunday declared that it would raise “Hamza-Ayesha” marriage issue in the National Assembly and ensure that she gets justice.