PESHAWAR: Qaumi Watan Party MPA Bakht Baidar on Saturday withdrew a Rs1 billion defamation lawsuit against PTI chairman Imran Khan for accusing him of committing corruption as a provincial minister in 2013.

Mr. Baidar told district and sessions judge Anwar Ali Khan here that a jirga consisting of leaders of PTI and led by provincial Assembly Speaker Asad Qaisar had approached him and requested to withdraw the suit as the defamatory statement of Imran Khan was based on misunderstanding.

He said he had forgiven Imran Khan unconditionally.

QWP’s Bakht Baidar tells court he’s forgiven PTI chief unconditionally

The MPA had filed the lawsuit in Dec 2013 seeking damages to the tune of Rs1 billion from Imran Khan on account of levelling ‘baseless’ corruption charges.

In Nov 2013, he had served a legal notice on the PTI chief asking him to tender unconditional apology within 15 days and pay him Rs1 billion damages.

As Imran Khan didn’t respond to the legal notice, the former minister filed the defamation lawsuit.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Babar Khan Yousafzai, told Dawn that his client’s case was very strong as during the last three years, the defendant had failed to produce a single corruption evidence against him.

He added that earlier, Imran Khan had filed an application with the court for dismissing the lawsuit but it was rejected.

Bakht Baidar was elected MPA on the ticket of the QWP in the May 2013 general elections.

He along with another provincial minister from QWP, Ibrar Hussain Tanoli, was sacked by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on Nov 13, 2013, on the directives of Imran Khan.

At the same time, the PTI chief had also announced an immediate end to his ruling party’s alliance with the QWP.

After the ouster of the two ministers, QWP provincial chief Sikandar Sherpao had also resigned from his post as senior minister in protest.

However, the QWP rejoined the PTi-led provincial government in Oct 2015.

Mr. Baidar claimed that he belonged to a respectable family of Chakdara in Lower Dir district and that Imran Khan had damaged his reputation in the eyes of the people, especially those from his constituency, by leveling false corruption charges.

After withdrawing the lawsuit, Mr. Baidar told reporters that after the filing of the case, he had regularly attended the court proceedings but neither Imran Khan showed up nor did his lawyer produce any corruption proof against him (plaintiff).

He denied that some secret commitments were made with him by PTI leaders.

The former minister said his position stood vindicated as a jirga of PTI leaders visited him and requested him to withdraw the lawsuit.

He added that in Pakhtun culture, a jirga had a unique status and therefore, he consulted friends and residents of his village, Adenzai, who asked him to accept the jirga’s request.

Mr. Baidar said if there were any corruption charges against him, then he or his party’s parliamentary leader should have been informed about it but ironically, they were kept in the dark and instead, Imran Khan defamed him by leveling baseless corruption allegations in the media.

Published in Dawn, February 19th, 2017