Lahore (October 09, 2017): Counsel of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan challenged the jurisdiction of a local court hearing a Rs10 billion defamation suit filed by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif.
A local court resumed hearing of the the Rs10 billion defamation suit filed by Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Chairman Imran Khan.
Sharif had filed a suit through his counsel, Mustafa Ramday, against Imran for alleging he was offered Rs10 billion by a close associate of the chief minister to drop the Panama case against former prime minister Nawaz Sharif.
During the hearing, Imran’s counsel claimed that the case is out of the court’s jurisdiction.
The lawyer asked the court to further extend the hearing of the case, however, the court turned it down.
The sessions court subsequently adjourned the hearing of the case until October 19.
In the last hearing on September 25, the court had asked Imran to submit a response in the case. In the same hearing, Imran’s lawyer, Babar Awan, had submitted Vakalt Nama on behalf of his client.
The case was filed in the court of Lahore additional district and sessions judge Azfar Sultan under Sections 4 (defamation actionable) and 9 (remedies) of Defamation Ordinance, 2002.
The petition states 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 [Shehbaz].”
Moreover, it states that Imran claimed Shehbaz “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.”
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