LAHORE: A counsel for incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf founding chairman Imran Khan on Saturday partially cross-examined Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, through a video link, in a Rs10 billion defamation suit filed by the latter against the former.

Additional District & Sessions Judge (AD&SJ) Yalmaz Ghani presided over the cross-examination proceedings, which were disrupted once due to a power outage.

The suit pending since 2017 says the defendant, Imran Khan, wrongly accused PM Shehbaz of offering Rs10bn to him through a common friend in exchange for withdrawing the case of Panama Papers from the Supreme Court.

Before the start of the cross-examination, PM Shehbaz took an oath, affirming that he would speak the truth and nothing but the truth. The prime minister’s counsel, Advocate Mustafa Ramday, was present with him.

Hearing in Rs10bn defamation suit filed by premier adjourned for 25th

Responding to the queries posed by Advocate Muhammad Hussain Chotia, the defendant’s counsel, PM Shehbaz Sharif testified that he had not made any television channel owner or employee a party in the defamation suit.

He confirmed that the allegations in question were made during the broadcasts of two television programmes, but he did not know from which city those programmes were aired.

During the cross-examination, PM Shehbaz stated that the PTI founding chairman had never made such allegations to his face.

Asked whether Imran Khan had ever directly published or broadcast a statement against him, the prime minister said all the accusations were made by the PTI founding chairman himself during television appearances.

He further stated that he personally signed the defamation lawsuit against the defendant and that the oath commissioner had come to him to verify the claim. Responding to another question, PM Shehbaz said he could not recall whether he was the president of the PML-N in 2017 when the allegations were made, but confirmed he was affiliated with the party then and still is.

He also affirmed that in 2017, the defendant was the chairman of his party. He admitted that the defendant had always been a political rival to the PML-N and never an ally.

The judge adjourned the remaining cross-examination of PM Shehbaz till April 25.

In the suit, PM Shehbaz said Imran Khan leveled baseless allegations on him. He sought a decree for recovery of Rs10bn as compensation from the defendant for publication of defamatory content.

Imran Khan had filed his reply to the suit with a delay of four years in 2021, saying one of his friends told him that someone known to him and also the Sharif family had approached him with an offer to pay billions of rupees if he could convince him (Mr Khan) to stop pursuing the Panama case.

The former prime minister said he disclosed the incident for the consumption of the public at large and an act in the interest of the public good does not constitute any defamation.

The reply maintained that Mr Khan did not specifically attribute any statement to the plaintiff (PM Shehbaz) while narrating the incident.

Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2025