LAHORE, Jan 16: Fifteen district nazims of Punjab on Friday sent legal notices to Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, seeking Rs1 billion damages each for ‘tarnishing their image’ through a media campaign.

The nazims are Rawalpindi District Nazim Javed Ikhlas, Tariq Bashir Cheema (Bahawalpur), Sardar Ghulam Abbas (Chakwal), Chaudhry Farrukh Altaf (Jhelum), Faisal Mukhtar (Multan), Akmal Cheema (Sialkot), Sardar Rafique Haider Leghari (Rahim Yar Khan), Rao Naseem Hashim (Pakpattan), Rana Zahid Tauseef (Faisalabad), Mumtaz Ali Shah (Nankana Sahib), Muhammad Fayyaz Chattha (Gujranwala), Sardar Ahmad Yar Hiraj (Khanewal), Barrister Raza Khan Daraishak (Rajanpur), Malik Ghulam Muhammad Tiwana (Khushab) and Abdul Rehman Kanju (Lodhran).

Three of these nazims had already issued a similar notice to the chief minister earlier. Now they have joined 12 other nazims who have sought damages from Shahbaz Sharif.

The nazims have made respondents Sardar Dost Muhammad Khosa, the local government and community development minister, Rana Sanaullah, Punjab law minister, Pervaiz Rasheed, CM’s media adviser, Munir Malik, director coordination in Directorate of Public Relations, Javed Mahmood, Punjab chief secretary, Suhail Aamir, LG&CD secretary, Orya Maqbool Jan, former information secretary, and Muhyuddin Wani, DG Public Relations, Punjab.

Their counsel Chaudhry Fawad Hussain sought within 14 days publication of unconditional apology in all the daily newspapers with an undertaking that such acts would not be repeated. Otherwise, he added, his clients would initiate legal proceedings against them in their districts for recovery of damages, etc.

In the notices, the nazims have said they (respondents) had illegally launched a defamatory media campaign against them and other district nazims in Punjab for extraneous reasons. They said the latest episode of this mala fide campaign was the publication of large-size public notices with misleading allegations of corruption of grave nature appearing in almost all the leading newspapers on Dec 28.

The counsel said they (the respondents) had misrepresented facts by relying on the auditor general’s report that alleged corruption against his clients. The respondents, he said, concealed words like ‘suspected’ and replaced them with word ‘proved’ to show involvement of his clients in corruption.