LAHORE: Make-up artist Leena Ghani, witness for singer Meesha Shafi, was confronted on Saturday with her several photographs with actor-cum-singer Ali Zafar, which she said had been taken well before the 2014 incident of sexual harassment she allegedly faced by the rock star.

During her cross-examination in a defamation suit by Zafar and Shafi, Ms Ghani said she did not meet the plaintiff after the alleged incident occurred on June 14, 2014, however, continued to meet his wife on her birthdays and whenever she invited her.

It is to mention that Ghani also accused Zafar of causing her sexual harassment during a fashion show in London back in 2014.

Advocate Hasham Ahmad, counsel for Zafar, showed Ghani several pictures of her with Zafar taken after the alleged London incident. But, she said the pictures were much before the incident of harassment.

Ghani, however, admitted as correct a six-page long text of her Facebook chat with Zafar held after the date of the alleged incident of harassment.

Responding to the queries of the plaintiff’s counsel, she said her sister Maheen Ghani and friends Zara Shahjahan and Ammara Hikmat had advised her to just ignore when she told them about the alleged incident. However, she said they believed her.

When confronted with a 2016 picture showing Shahjahan and Hikmat standing with Zafar, Ghani said it could be true as they stopped seeing the plaintiff after 2016 when a number of girls confided to her about inappropriate behavior from the plaintiff.

She admitted that this reason for not meeting the plaintiff had not been mentioned in her statement and her defamation suit against him was pending with the Sindh High Court.

Ghani said it was correct that her sister Maheen Ghani went to India with Zafar in 2015 to see their common friend. She said her sister was an independent woman who made her own decision.

The witness agreed that she remained an organizer of Aurat March from 2018 to 2021. She admitted that the organizers of the march collected donations but there had been no foreign funding. She said a committee of the Aurat March dealt with the donations in a transparent manner, however, there had been no formal audit of the funds.

When confronted with different slogans used by the participants of the Aurat March, Ghani said she being the organizer had no control over the opinion of the participants but she supported the slogans if expressed by a woman to narrate her personal trauma. Ghani said she was a 42-year-old woman without any issues and had not married again since her divorce in 2010.

The cross-examination was in progress when Additional District & Sessions Judge Azhar Iqbal Ranjha adjourned the hearing for May 22. The lawyers from both sides requested the judge to defer the proceedings for a date after Eidul Fitr.

Zafar filed the defamation suit against Shafi for leveling allegations of sexual harassment on him. He said the allegations tarnished his image in public while his family faced agony and pain. He asked the court to issue a decree against Shafi and direct her to pay Rs1 billion as damages to him.

Published in Dawn, April 25th, 2021