Meesha, witness skip hearing

LAHORE :In the defamation suit filed by singer cum actor Ali Zafar against singer Meesha Shafi, the singer and her witnesses failed to appear in the court once again seeking further adjournment despite court orders after which the court adjourned the hearing by October 26.

The court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Amjad Ali Shah has also issued notice to Meesha Shafi for October 26 for alleged violation of court’s order that restrained her from making any derogatory remarks against Zafar till the decision of the defamation suit.

The court had summoned Meesha Shafi and her witnesses for October 10 but they did not appear in the court.

In the previous hearing, the counsel for Meesha had cross-examined Ali in which Ali produced messages, tweets, pictures and documents. He also produced in the court a Whatsapp message of Meesha Shafi in which she had written, “Had a great time jamming and performing.” The message was sent by Meesha two days after the jamming session in which she was allegedly harassed. Previously, more than 12 witnesses of Ali Zafar, including three women had appeared before the court. Guitarist Asad Ahmed, bass player Muhammad Ali, drummer Qaisar Zain, backing vocalists Aqsa Ali and Kinza Muneer, saxophone player Muhammad Taqi, percussionist Kashif Chaman, flute player Baqir Abbas and keyboard player Joshua Keith appeared in the court as eyewitnesses to the jamming session.

Talking to media, Zafar’s lawyer Hasham said that Meesha Shafi’s lawyers once again failed to produce Miss Shafi and her witnesses which validated his point further that they had no evidence to any of the claims and hence had been repeatedly trying to delay the case for over a year by seeking unnecessary adjournments on every stage to avoid paying damages.

However, Meesha Shafi’s lawyer Saqib Jilani said that he needed more time as Meesha was living in Canada and one of her witnesses which was scheduled to appear on October 10 could not come from Karachi due to her personal emergency. He assured that their witnesses would appear in the court on the next date of hearing.