Khawaja Asif’s defamation case: Court slaps Rs5,000 fine on Imran for seeking adjournment

ISLAMABAD: A sessions court Saturday fined former prime minister and PTI chief Imran Khan for seeking an adjournment of the hearing in the Rs10 billion defamation case filed against Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, reported Geo News.

Additional Sessions Judge Adnan Khan imposed a fine of Rs5,000 on the PTI chief for seeking an adjournment in the hearing due to his involvement in the ongoing relief operation for the flood victims in Sindh.

The PMLN leader’s lawyer, Advocate Ali Shah Geelani, appeared before the court during the hearing, but his cross-examination of Khan’s statement had to be postponed. The court accepted Khan’s counsel’s request to adjourn the hearing, after which the hearing was adjourned till September 24.

Imran Khan had filed the defamation suit against Khawaja Asif in 2012 for recovery of Rs10 billion as the latter had at a press conference levelled allegations about misappropriation of and money laundering through the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT) funds.

In his lawsuit, the former prime minister had referred to the defence minister’s press conference on August 1, 2012, in which he alleged that the PTI supremo had lost a massive amount of funds donated to his cancer hospital in “real estate gambling”. Imran termed the allegations “false and defamatory”.

Earlier this year, the Islamabad High Court accepted Khawaja Asif’s petition challenging the decision to disallow the right to cross-examine then prime minister Imran Khan with reference to the defamation case against him.