Shahbaz’s defamation suit against Imran: Court asks counsel to give arguments on early hearing plea till Aug 24

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions court on Monday sought arguments from the counsel for both parties on an application, moved by opposition leader Shahbaz Sharif seeking early hearing of his defamation suit against Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan pending before the court for the last three years.

The court directed the counsel for both parties to extend their arguments on the matter by August 24. Shahbaz Sharif, through his counsel, had moved the court stating that defamation suit was pending before the court and Imran Khan had not submitted his written reply even in three years. Shahbaz stated that in three years, 60 hearings of the case took place and 33 times Imran sought adjournment.

He stated that the court orders of the previous hearings were witness to irresponsible attitude of the PTI chairman. As per case details, in 2017, Shahbaz Sharif had sent Rs10 billion defamation notice to PTI Chairman Imran Khan.

The notice, which had been filed under sections 4 and 9 of the Defamation Ordinance, 2002, stated that Imran falsely accused Shahbaz of making him a financial offer for his 'silence over the Panama Papers case'.

The petition stated that “the facts and circumstances giving rise to the filing of the instant suit are that since the last week of April, 2017, the defendant [Imran Khan] started uttering, spreading and resorting to the publication, communication and circulation of maliciously false, baseless and unfounded oral statements and representations against the plaintiff [Shahbaz].”

Moreover, it said that Imran claimed that Shahbaz “offered to pay a sum of Rs10,000,000,000 to the defendant in exchange for his withdrawing/backing-off from, or remaining silent on the issue of the Panama Papers case.”

In April 2017, Khan during a gathering at Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Lahore, alleged that he had been made an offer in the Panama case. "Just imagine how much money he offered me to be silent, Rs10 billion! If he can offer me this much money, just imagine how much he could offer to others. That is why if we don't maintain public pressure on this issue, then after two months it will be dragged to the next year," Khan had claimed.

In an interview televised following the statement, Khan refused to reveal the name of the person who made the offer but did state that the person was close to the Punjab chief minister. After this, Shahbaz had filed defamation suit in the court against the PTI chairman.

Interestingly, responding to the defamation suit, Imran Khan had said that he does not own Rs10 billion, and will ask Shahbaz Sharif's sons Suleman and Hamza for a loan since "all the children in Sharif family have somehow become billionaires"