KARACHI: Prominent journalist Najam Sethi has served a defamation notice to Dr Shireen Mazari, information secretary, PTI, for making remarks about tax evasion against him and his family which Mr Sethi called “utterly false and defamatory”, and has demanded an unconditional apology and compensation of Rs50 billion.

The legal notice was based on a statement, published in Dawn’s issue of Jan 24, 2015, in which Dr Mazari alleged that the secretariat of the President of Pakistan helped the family of Mr Sethi in a tax evasion case.

According to Mr Sethi’s lawyer, a similar legal notice has also been sent to Sohail Muzaffar, Chairman, Transparency International (Pakistan), as the basis of Dr Mazari’s statement was a letter written by Mr Muzaffar to President Mamnoon Hussain.

Take a look: Presidency accused of helping Sethi in ‘tax evasion case’

The president’s spokesman has already rejected the allegation levelled by the PTI leader, saying that President Hussain had not taken any step on the Sethi family’s appeal against a decision of the tax ombudsman. The presidency’s clarification was published in Dawn on Jan 26.

In a separate letter sent to Editor Dawn, Mr Sethi’s lawyer has asked the newspaper to disassociate itself from Dr Mazari’s statement.

Published in Dawn, February 11th, 2015

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