Turkish company’s defamation suit: Bailable arrest warrants issued for Gill

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions court Thursday issued bailable arrest warrants for Shahbaz Gill, a special assistant to prime minister, in a defamation suit filed against him by a Turkish company.

The court issued the arrest warrants for not appearing before the court. However, Gill also approached the court through his counsel, requesting for withdrawal of his arrest warrants, with the plea that he was granted exemption from personal appearance. The court is yet not take up the Gill petition. The petition against Gill was filed by Albayrak Group. It said the group had introduced an 18-metre-long metro bus in Pakistan, which is better than normal buses. However, Shahbaz Gill made a statement against the petitioner on Sept 26, 2020, in a TV programme, alleging that the petitioner had signed the metro bus project with the Pakistani government for $3.68 per kilometre rate, out of which Suleman Shehbaz, son of PMLN President Shehbaz Sharif, was paid $1.85 per kilometre as bribe, it said. The petitioner stated that the allegations of corruption were baseless. It stated that Shahbaz Gill had accused the company of indulging in corruption without any evidence, thus affecting its repute. It claimed that due to Gill’s campaign against the company, it had lost millions of dollars.