LAHORE: A Supreme Court three-judge bench with a majority of two to one on Thursday dismissed a petition of former prime minister Imran Khan against challenging seizure of his right to file objections to the interrogatories of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in a defamation suit against the former.

The bench comprising Justice Syed Mansoor Ali Shah, Justice Aminuddin Khan and Justice Ayesha A. Malik heard final arguments of the counsel from both sides before dismissing the petition and upholding the decisions by the Lahore High Court and the trial court.

On behalf of PM Shehbaz, Advocate Mustafa Ramday argued that the trial court held at least 21 hearings from directing the petitioner (Khan) to submit the objections till closing his right to submit the same.

He pointed out that the counsel for Khan sought adjournments on 13 out of 21 hearings before the trial court. He said the petitioner could have filed his objections by simply calling the interrogatories of the respondent (Shehbaz) irrelevant or scandalising.

The bench asked the counsel for Khan as to why he had not submitted the answers simply terming the interrogatories irrelevant or scandalised.

Barrister Syed Ali Zafar, the counsel for Khan, said the petitioner had told the trial court that the interrogatories were irrelevant to the suit proceedings.

However, the bench observed that the record did not support the version of the petitioner.

The bench dismissed the petition. Justice Malik dissented from the majority decision.PM Shehbaz filed a suit for the recovery of Rs10bn as damages for defamation from Imran Khan in 2017 for accusing the former of offering him Rs10bn through a common friend in exchange for withdrawing the case of Panama Papers pending before the Supreme Court.

Khan filed a contesting statement before the trial court and Shehbaz filed his interrogatories, a copy of which was handed over to the petitioner’s (Khan) counsel for filing answer to the same.

The petitioner instead of filing answers to the interrogatories, filed objections to the interrogatories. The trial court overruled the objections being filed beyond the stipulated period.

The trial court overruling the objections of Khan directed him to file answers to the interrogatories of the respondent. However, the petitioner did not file the answers. Resultantly, his right of defence was struck by the trial court. The LHC on Dec 7 dismissed a petition of Khan against the decision of the trial court.

Published in Dawn, December 30th, 2022