LAHORE: Prime Minister Imran Khan has engaged Senator Barrister Syed Ali Zafar as his new counsel to defend him in the Rs10bn defamation suit filed by Leader of Opposition in National Assembly Shehbaz Sharif.

Additional District & Sessions Judge Yasir Hayat on Monday resumed hearing of the suit, an associate filed the power of attorney of Barrister Zafar on behalf of PM Khan.

However, the court directed the counsel to personally submit his power of attorney on the next hearing. The court also asked the counsel to submit replies to the suit and miscellaneous applications pending for months. The hearing was adjourned till April 6.

Earlier, advocates Pir Masood Chishti and Babar Awan were representing the prime minister in the suit pending for four years.

On the previous hearing, Khan’s counsel had given an undertaking in writing that on next hearing, arguments would be advanced and no further adjournment would be sought.

The defamation suit states that Imran Khan started uttering false and malicious statements against Shehbaz and that the latter offered Rs10bn to the former through a common friend in exchange of withdrawing the case of Panama Papers pending before the Supreme Court.

It says the plaintiff served a legal notice to the defendant, asking him to tender a proper apology within 14 days through the print and electronic media. However, the defendant failed to make an apology and the plaintiff left with no option but to approach the court for recovery of damages.

The suit pleads that the baseless and defamatory statements by the defendant widely circulated by the media lowered the integrity of the plaintiff and caused him extreme mental torture, agony and anxiety. The court has been requested to issue a decree for recovery of Rs10bn as compensation for the publication of defamatory content.

Published in Dawn, March 30th, 2021