HARIPUR, March 10: The Haripur additional district and sessions judge on Friday issued a Rs500,000 decree on a damages suite against chief editors, publishers and correspondents of four dailies and six other people for publishing libellous reports against a cleric.

According to Maulana Ilyas Qadri’s counsel Khalid Rehman Khan, dailies Khabrain, Islamabad, Shamal, Abbottabad, Sada-i-Khalq, Haripur, and Aaj, Abbottabad, had published statements of Sher Afzal, Ghulam Mustafa, Nisar, Akhtar Zaman, Khan Afsar and Mohammad Jamil against his client.

Terming the statements libellous, Maulana Qadri filed the damages suite against daily Khabrain’s chief editor Zia Shahid, editor Adnan Shahid and district correspondent in Haripur; daily Shamal chief editor Niaz Pasha Jadoon, editor Abdul Rashid Tanoli and local correspondent; daily Aaj chief editor Abdul Wahid Yousfi, its editor and correspondent; and daily Sada-i-Khalq chief editor Dr Chan Mubarik, editor and reporter.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Yousaf Khan issued the decree for Rs500,000 against the 19 defendants.

The litigant has also filed a contempt of court suite against the newspapers and their local correspondents. The court will announce its judgment in the contempt case on Saturday.