LONDON: Shortly after a retired major made scandalous accusations against leading Pakistani actresses, it emerged that a serving military officer has sued the controversial YouTuber, Adil Raja, in the UK over a separate set of allegations.

According to Geo News, a serving head of the intelligence command of Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Punjab, sued London-based Adil Farooq Raja for allegedly running a defamation campaign against him on social media platforms. He has demanded an apology, damages and a retraction of the defamatory statements.

The suit was filed with the UK High Court against Mr Raja in August 2022, but was made public on Tuesday as Mr Raja stirred controversy in Pakistan over his allegations targeting leading film and TV actresses.

Court papers suggest that Major (retired) Adil Raja’s campaign against the intelligence head kicked off on 14 June 2022 when Raja alleged that he “has taken complete occupation of the Lahore High Court “to rig the upcoming elections”.

On 19 June 2022, Raja alleged there was election manipulation and that “allegedly ISI Sector Commander Punjab had several meetings with Asif Ali Zardari during the latter’s current stay at Lahore”.

The ISI officer’s representatives told the UK High Court that Mr Raja “conducted a determined and prolific social media campaign against the Claimant publishing very many Tweets and videos, many of which are seriously defamatory of the Claimant, and all of which, by reason of their content, tone and frequency, have caused the Claimant serious harm”.

Mr Raja arrived in London from Islamabad in April last year after differences developed between him and the army. Since then, he has made allegations about “regime change” conspiracy, naming several serving military officers.

Mr Raja told Geo News that his tweets and vlogs were based on the information “provided by highly placed sources within the Pakistani Establishment”.

Published in Dawn, January 4th, 2023