Daily Times

LAHORE: The hearing of a defamation case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairperson Imran Khan – filed by Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif – was adjourned on Saturday for two weeks.

The court adjourned the Rs 10 billion defamation case hearing as additional sessions judge Shabana Risalat is on leave. The duty judge has issued another notice to Imran’s counsel. During a hearing on February 2, the sessions court gave PTI chief’s counsel Babar Awan the last chance to appear in court, as the latter had been a constant no-show since the defamation suit was filed in July 2017.

Shehbaz’s counsel had told the court that Awan was using delaying tactics by not appearing in court and challenging its jurisdiction. The court then gave Awan a last chance to appear and present his arguments. The hearing was adjourned until February 17.

In November 2017, the Punjab chief minister had filed a petition, seeking a swift verdict in the case. Shehbaz had stated in the petition that Imran was employing delaying tactics and pleaded that the verdict be given in the next 90 days. Imran, in a public gathering last year, had claimed that Shehbaz had offered to pay him Rs 10 billion to remain silent on the Panama Papers case against the Sharif family.

The petition, filed in the court of Lahore additional sessions judge Azfar Sultan under sections 4 (defamation actionable) and 9 (remedies) of Defamation Ordinance, 2002, stated that the facts and circumstances giving rise to the filing of the instant suit were that since the last week of April 2017, the defendant [Imran Khan] started uttering, spreading and resorting to the publication, communication and circulation of maliciously false, baseless and unfounded oral statements and representations against the plaintiff [Shehbaz].

Published in Daily Times, February 18^th 2018.