Daily Times

LAHORE: Federal Minister for Railways Khawaja Saad Rafique has on Sunday served Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Fawad Chaudhry with a defamation notice worth Rs 5 billion for leveling baseless allegations against him during a media talk on February 22.

According to details, Fawad Chaudhry had alleged Saad Rafique of owning Paragon City, getting his brother a contract worth Rs 14 billion in Ashyana-e-Iqbal Housing Scheme and other corruption scandals, which Saad Rafique termed as baseless and based on ill intent.

In his notice, the copy of which has been obtained by Daily Times, Saad Rafique’s lawyer maintained that the constitution of Pakistan guaranteed the protection of the honour of its citizens and no person could be allowed to defame another without legal reasoning.

The notice says that Saad Rafique became a member of the parliament through the votes of the people and was able to restore the dying department of Railways and guided it towards progress, making it a ‘strengthening arm of the State’.

The federal minister believes that the reason behind the ‘propaganda’ was to ‘damage his reputation beyond repair, stir propaganda to mislead the public at large and to exert undue influence’ on him ‘so as to adversely affect the discharge of his duties in the interest of the state’.