The District and Sessions Judge (D&SJ) on Saturday granted former Caretaker Punjab Chief Minister Najam Sethi’s plea to file a review petition against the dismissal of his earlier plea on jurisdictional grounds.
The earlier plea to hear the defamation case against Sethi had been rejected because a beyond Rs 100 million was outside the D&SJ’s jurisdiction.
The damages claim had been filed by Supreme Court (SC) Registrar Dr Faqir Muhammad against Friday Times Editor Najam Sethi.
D&SJ Raja Jawad Abbas Hassan took the petition up for hearing on Saturday.
Nasir Mehmood represented Dr Faqir Muhammad while Asma Jahangir was Sethi’s counsel.
Jahangir said that the court had fixed June 15 for evidence recording but the SC had issued a stay order on all defamation cases.
Citing the Herald Publications case pending hearing with SC, she said that the SC had issued a stay order on all defamation cases due to said case. Thus, evidence could not be recorded in Sethi’s case till the SC’s decision on the Herald Publications case.
She requested the court that more time be allowed to them to file the review petition.
The court adjourned the hearing till July 6.
Talking to media after the hearing, Najam Sethi said, “Many people are annoyed by my discussion during my program “Aapas ki Baat” and so tactics are being employed to harass me.”
He alleged that these attempts were being made through Dr Faqir Muhammad and Federal Tax Ombudsman Shoaib Saddal. However, he said that he could not be silenced in this manner.
