ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court on Tuesday dismissed a defamation suit filed by Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader Hanif Abbasi against Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Mr Abbasi had filed the suit in 2014 against Mr Khan for “spreading slanderous propaganda” and requested the court for recovery of Rs1 billion as damages from him.

The PML-N leader had maintained that Mr Khan, in his speeches, had called him a ‘drug pusher’.

Shahid Naseem Gondal, legal adviser of the Capital Development Authority, is representing the prime minister in the private matter.

Talking to Dawn, Mr Gondal said that additional district and sessions judge Malik Shafique dismissed the defamation suit because the allegation against Mr Abbasi stood proved after his conviction in the ephedrine case by the Control of Narcotics Substances Court. The judgement substantiated that Mr Abbasi was a drug peddler, he added.

When Mr Abbasi’s counsel pointed out that the Lahore High Court had suspended the sentence against his client, Mr Gondal said the conviction still stood.

Mr Khan in a television talk show had said that then prime minister Nawaz Sharif had placed Rs100 billion development fund at the disposal of a ‘drug peddler’. At that time, Mr Abbasi was being tried in the ephedrine case.

Published in Dawn, October 16th, 2019