Lahore court tells Imran Khan to submit response in defamation case till Oct 9

LAHORE: A civil court on Monday directed  Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan to submit his response in the Rs10 billion defamation suit filed against him by Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif until October 9.
Sharif had filed a suit through his counsel Mustafa Ramday against Imran for alleging that he was offered Rs10 billion by a close associate of the chief minister to stop pursuing the Panama Papers case.
On Monday, Imran’s lawyer Babar Awan submitted his papers in the case.
The court adjourned the hearing of the case until Oct 9, giving Imran Khan last chance to submit response.
The case was filed in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Azfar Sultan under Section 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”.
On April 25, Khan, during a gathering at Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Lahore, alleged that he had been made an offer regarding 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 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 refused to reveal the name of the person who made the offer but did state that this person was close to the Punjab chief minister.