A Pakistani court Thursday rejected a lawyer’s petition asking it to direct authorities to file charges of obscenity and sedition against actor Veena Malik and confiscate her passport over a controversy around her nude pictures in an Indian magazine. Salimullah Khan had filed the petition against Malik in the Islamabad High Court. He contended that she should be tried under provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code for obscene acts, sedition, defamation and wearing clothes and using equipment used by Pakistani military personnel. Rejecting his petition, the court said it could not take any action as the photos had been published in another country. Khan had earlier told the court that Malik did a naked photo shoot for FHM India magazine. The nude picture was printed on the cover of the magazine and other photos were featured on the e-edition of FHM India, he said. Malik has denied doing a nude photo shoot for the magazine, saying the pictures were “morphed”. The actor and the magazine have threatened to take legal action against each other. Khan contended in his petition that Malik`s conduct was “controversial and shameful for everybody in Pakistan” and that she had trampled “all standards of Islamic cultures and morality”. He asked the court to order Malik to come back to Pakistan, and to direct authorities to confiscate her passport. Malik’s passport is “state property” and the government could confiscate it under the law, he claimed.
