LAHORE – The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday declared the petition filed by the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan in a case related to Rs10 billion defamation suit of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif as inadmissible.
Justice Chaudhry Muhammad Iqbal of the LHC delivered the reserved decision on Imran Khan’s petition.
The court ruled the petition filed by Imran Khan, challenging the permission granted to his witnesses to provide written testimony, as inadmissible.
On Monday, a LHC single bench took up the plea regarding the defamation claim filed by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif against Imran Khan. The plea was moved by PTI founder Imran Khan against the trial court’s decision to allow witnesses to provide written testimony in the said defamation suit.
Imran Khan through his petition argued that the trial court’s decision to permit witnesses to provide written testimony in the defamation case was incorrect and contrary to the facts, and that the witnesses should appear in court to testify.
Imran Khan had asked the court to annul the trial court’s decision but the court declared the petition inadmissible.
A defamation lawsuit, which has been pending in a civil court since 2017, alleged that Imran Khan falsely accused Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif of offering Rs10 billion through a mutual acquaintance in exchange for dropping the Panama Papers case that was pending before the Supreme Court.
The plaintiff claimed that Mr. Khan made these unfounded accusations against him and is seeking a judgment for Rs10 billion in damages for the defamatory remarks made against him.
In 2021, after a delay of four years, the PTI founder submitted his response to the lawsuit, stating that one of his friends informed him that a person familiar with both him and the Sharif family had approached him with an offer to pay billions of rupees if he could persuade Khan to drop the Panama case.
Mr. Khan argued that he made the disclosure in the public interest, and that such an action, intended for the public good, should not be considered defamatory.
In his response, Mr. Khan emphasized that he did not directly attribute any statement to the plaintiff (PM Shehbaz) when recounting the incident.
