ISLAMABAD-
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan on Tuesday retracted his reply to the defamation notice sent by former Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, a private news channel reported.
According to the leader, PTI counsel Hamid Khan confirmed that he had retracted the reply on directions of the PTI chief.
“Any new lawyer will come forward now to respond to the notice,” he told the news channel while adding that he wasn’t aware of the next strategy of Khan.
Meanwhile, the former CJ’s counsels Sheikh Ahsanuddin and Taufiq Asif said that there is no room in law to take back a reply.
In July, the former CJ sent a defamation notice worth Rs20 billion to Khan under section 8 of the Defamation Ordinance, 2002.
“I claim from you in damages a token sum of Rs15 billion only and another Rs5 billion only as damages for mental agonies, torture, harassment, humiliation, etc, caused to me as well as my family,” stated the CJ in the notice.
He said that the PTI chief’s speeches and press conferences were calculated with “the underlying mischief of harassing me and my family members and you have succeeded in damaging my reputation and image.”
He added that would withdraw his claim if the PTI chief tendered an unconditional apology or agreed to pay Rs20 billion within a period of 14 days.
In reply to the notice, Khan apologised for use of ‘inappropriate’ words against the former CJ.
Khan said that the entire nation respects the CJ for standing up to a dictator and appreciates his services.
He further said that his words’ selection was ‘wrong’ and ‘inappropriate’ and he was speaking under emotions of ‘disappointment’ over election rigging.
Hamid Khan is a friend of ExCJ and part of PTI who has tried to please both ExCJ and IK. Imran Khan has done a service by retracting the letter.
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