PESHAWAR: Prime Minister Imran Khan has moved the Peshawar High Court as chairman of the ruling PTI seeking the dismissal of a defamation suit filed against him by former woman MPA Fauzia Bibi on a charge of horse-trading in the 2018 Senate election.

Senior lawyer Babar Awan and deputy attorney general Habib Qureshi jointly filed a civil revision petition on behalf of the premier against the rejection of an identical plea of Mr Imran by a Peshawar court on Dec 14, 2019, for being non-maintainable.

Mr Imran requested the high court to set aside the order of an additional district and sessions judge by declaring it illegal and arbitrary having material irregularities and to reject the plaint of the respondent, Fauzia Bibi.

ADSJ Abdul Majid had reserved an order over an application of Mr Imran on June 15 after the completion of arguments by both parties and had finally pronounced it on Dec 14.

The trial court had fixed Jan 18 for the next hearing into the lawsuit and directed the defendant (Mr Imran) to reply it.

Counsel say ex-MPA’s horse-trading plaint not maintainable

In the said application filed under Order VII Rule 11 of Code of Civil Procedure, Mr Imran had requested the court to reject the suit as it was not maintainable. He had stated that the news conference referred by the plaintiff (Fauzia Bibi) was made by the defendant (Imran Khan) in pursuance of a report submitted by the disciplinary committee in good faith.

The former MPA, who was elected on reserved seats for women on the PTI ticket, has filed the lawsuit for the recovery of damages to the tune of Rs500 million for defaming her through leveling ‘baseless’ allegations against her by Mr Imran in a news conference accusing her of selling her vote in the Senate election.

The defamation suit was filed in June 2018 under the Defamation Ordinance, 2002. The only defendant in the lawsuit was PTI chief Imran Khan, who became the prime minister afterward.

Plaintiff Fauzia has claimed that in the Senate election held on Mar 3, 2018, she had followed the direction with effect to cast vote in favour of all the candidates of her party.

In the petition, he contended that the impugned order of Dec 14 passed by the trial court was liable to be revised and consequently the petition moved by him was to be allowed.

He said the disciplinary committee of the party had inquired into the matter and submitted its report to the Chairman PTI (Mr Imran). He states that the referred press conference by the plaintiff was held and organized on the report of the disciplinary committee.

The petitioner said the plaintiff had not challenged the report of the disciplinary committee before any competent forum.

He said the news conference was a joint one, which was also addressed by PTI leaders Pervez Khattak, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Jahangir Tareen and members of provincial cabinet, and therefore, the suit couldn’t be proceeded and was liable to be dismissed.

In 2018, another application was filed on behalf of Mr Imran under Order VII Rule 10 requesting the court to return the lawsuit as the news conference in question was addressed in Islamabad, which was out of the jurisdiction of the court.

However, that application was dismissed by the court on Jan 30, 2019.

Published in Dawn, January 15th, 2020