A Sessions Court in Lahore summoned Prime Minister Imran Khan over a defamation lawsuit filed by the Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly, Shehbaz Sharif.
Additional District and Sessions Judge Mudassar Farid Khokhar fixed October 6 for the appearance of the parties personally or through their counsel for further proceedings in the suit filed in 2017.
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president has claimed in his petition that the premier has “falsely accused him of offering money to him to stay silent in the Panama Papers case.”
Sharif’s petition pleads that the baseless and defamatory statements by PM Khan, which were widely circulated by the media, lowered the integrity of Shehbaz and caused him extreme mental torture, agony, and anxiety. The court has been requested to issue a decree for recovery of Rs 10 billion as compensation for the publication of defamatory content in favour of the plaintiff.
“PM Imran Khan’s allegation damaged my reputation,” stated Shehbaz in the petition.
In his written statement, Prime Minister Khan states that one of his friends told him that someone known to him and also the Sharif family approached him with an offer to pay billions of rupees if he could convince him (Khan) to stop pursuing the Panama case.
“Just imagine how much money he offered me to be silent — Rs10 billion! If he can offer me this much money, just imagine how much he could offer to others. That is why if we don’t maintain public pressure on this issue, then after two months it will be dragged to the next year,” Khan had claimed.
In an interview televised following the statement, Khan had refused to reveal the name of the person who made the offer but did state that this person was close to the then Punjab chief minister.
