LAHORE: A woman journalist on Monday told a sessions court that she did not know singer Meesha Shafi personally and had never met her.

“I spoke to the defendant (Ms Shafi) first time in April 2018 when she got in touch with me to discuss the allegations that she had against the plaintiff (Ali Zafar) and the possibility of coverage of her story/allegation,” said Hamna Zubair and added that at that time of their contact, Ms Shafi had not tweeted about her allegations against Zafar on twitter.

In her statement as a witness from the defendant (Shafi’s) side during hearing of a defamation suit filed by singer Ali Zafar against Ms Shafi for levelling allegations of sexual harassment against him.

Ms Zubair said she left the newspaper in the late 2019 to go abroad but the Covid-19 changed her plans.

She explained that Mr Zafar was not the only individual she covered who had been accused of harassment. In her opinion, she went on to say, the plaintiff had not been defamed in any way because his career had not suffered any loss and his reputation had not been harmed.

The journalist added that Ali Zafar had just been awarded the Pride of Performance Award by the government and he recently hosted the award show of a private entertainment TV channel.

In his plea, Ali Zafar said the harassment allegations had tarnished his image in the public while his family had been facing agony and pain. He asked the court to issue a decree against Ms Shafi and direct her to pay him Rs1bn as damages.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Azhar Iqbal Ranjha adjourned the hearing till Tuesday (today).

Published in Dawn, July 6th, 2021