Court seeks Imran’s reply in Shehbaz defamation case

LAHORE: An Additional District and Sessions court on Friday adjourned a defamation suit against PTI Chairman Imran Khan filed by the PMLN President and Prime Minister Shehbaz Shairf by January 4.

The court has asked the PTI chairman to submit his reply on an application of Shehbaz seeking the recording of his witnesses through video link. Previously, the court had closed Imran Khan’s right to respond or oppose after he failed to respond in time to the objections raised. Shehbaz Sharif had asked the court to close Imran' right to file his written statement because of “inordinate delay” on the part of the PTI chief through “unnecessary adjournments”.

The defamation suit, filed in 2017, alleged that PTI Chairman Imran Khan had uttered false and malicious statements against the plaintiff (Shehbaz Sharif) that the latter had offered Rs10bn to the former through a common friend in exchange for withdrawing the Panama Papers’ case pending before the Supreme Court.

Shehbaz pleaded that Imran's “baseless and defamatory statements” were widely circulated by the media, denting his integrity and causing him “extreme mental torture, agony and anxiety”. The court was requested to issue a decree for recovering Rs10bn as compensation for the publication of defamatory content in favour of Shehbaz Sharif.