Rs5m fine in defamation suit filed by SKMT in 2012: LHC dismisses Hanif Abbasi’s plea

LAHORE: Lahore High Court (LHC) Chief Justice Muhammad Qasim Khan on Monday dismissed an application of PMLN leader Raja Hanif Abbasi, seeking transfer of his appeal challenging a decree against him from Rawalpindi bench to principal seat.

A Sessions Court in Rawalpindi had fined Abbasi Rs5 million in a defamation suit filed by Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust in 2012. The suit had claimed Rs100 million against Abbasi for maligning the members of the trust’s board of governors. Abbasi challenged the decision through an appeal before the LHC Rawalpindi bench. However, his counsel stated that two of the judges at the Rawalpindi bench recused from the appeal on personal reasons. Therefore, he asked the chief justice to transfer the appeal from Rawalpindi to the principal seat in Lahore.

Opposing the transfer application of Abbasi, the trust’s counsel Rabbiya Bajwa argued that the application filed at the Rawalpindi bench and it could not be shifted to the principal seat.

The chief justice dismissed the transfer application of Abbasi. As per the suit, Abbasi in a television programme stated that the trust’s board’s members took salaries in millions of rupees from Shaukat Khanum Memorial Cancer Hospital. He alleged that the 19 board members were relatives of Prime Minister Imran Khan, while the trust claimed that none of the board members took any money on any account and only three board members were relatives of Khan, who was chairman of the board of governors.