LAHORE: Farhat Shehzadi has sent a legal notice as a ‘final reminder’ to Prime Minister’s Assistant Attaullah Tararr to “cease and desist” from all ongoing and existing defamation of her.

In a fresh legal notice, she also demanded an “unconditional apology’ from Mr Tararr within seven days of receiving the notice. The notice was served on Tarrar through her lawyer Azhar Siddique.

She also demanded that Mr Tararr pay her Rs5 billion for using the derogatory and defamatory term (Gogi) in the past and an additional Rs5bn for using the same term once again in London in May 2022. “Since Tarrar has not adhered to the requests made in the earlier notices, we are hereby intimating you that we are initiating defamation proceedings against you before the court of competent jurisdiction,” the notice says.

Farhat is reportedly in the UAE while back in Pakistan, the Shehbaz government says it would bring her to Pakistan following the initiation of an investigation by the National Accountability Bureau into her assets beyond means. Hamza Shehbaz being the chief minister of Punjab had also ordered the Anti-Corruption Establishment to investigate her land transactions in the province. Subsequently, Farah, her mother and many others were booked for illegal allotment of some industrial plots.

Tarrar alleged that Farhat accumulated “assets worth billions of rupees”.

Calling her Farah Gogi, Tararr alleged that she used to “approve transfers and appointments” of government officials in Punjab against hefty payments and the wealth was spent on purchasing diamonds worth billions of rupees.

He alleged that “the matter is not confined to diamond dealings as information about the selling of expensive paintings and watches will come to the fore soon”.

He called upon the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf chairman to tell her Gogi to return home and join investigations.

Published in Dawn, August 12th, 2022