LAHORE: A sessions court on Monday deferred the cross-examination of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif till Sept 12 in a Rs10 billion defamation suit against incarcerated PTI founding chairman Imran Khan.

Additional District & Sessions Judge Yalmaz Ghani adjourned the hearing without any progress as the PTI founder’s counsel did not appear before the court.

The judge directed the lawyers from both parties to appear at 10am on the next hearing for the cross-examination of the prime minister via a video link.

In his defamation suit filed in 2017, 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 Papers 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, September 9th, 2025