Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan has been issued a second notice today asking him to respond to a Rs10 billion defamation notice filed by Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
The Lahore district and sessions court where the defamation case was lodged has asked Khan to submit his reply by August 21.
The notice filed by Punjab chief minister under sections 4 and 9 of the Defamation Ordinance, 2002, states that Imran falsely accused Shahbaz of making a financial offer to him for remaining silent over the Panama Papers case.
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 [Shahbaz].”
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.”
The suit also elaborates that Imran made the “utterly false statement” on different television shows as well as at a public gathering.
On April 25, Khan, during a gathering at Shaukat Khanum Hospital, Lahore, had alleged that he had been offered 10 billion for remaining silent over the Panama case issue.
