Lahore sessions court fines Meesha Shafi Rs10,000 over 'non-appearance'

LAHORE: A sessions court here on Wednesday fined singer Meesha Shafi Rs10,000.

The court which is hearing Ali Zafar’s defamation case against Meesha Shafi imposed the fine over the non-appearance of the latter’s lawyer in court.

The hearing of the case has been adjourned till April 17.

Ambreen Qureshi, the lawyer for Ali Zafar said Shafi’s failure to appear in court was a blatant attempt to delay the case.

On Tuesday, Justice Masood Jahangir of the Lahore High Court (LHC) suspended the order of District Judge directing the trial court judge to concluded Ali Zafar’s defamation case against Meesha Shafi by April 15.

The time limit was increased by three months and Justice Jahangir observed that the legal team of Meesha Shafi was at liberty to see a further extension.

Zafar had filed the defamation suit last year against Shafi, who had accused him of sexual harassment.

The suit, claiming damages of Rs1 billion, was filed under the Defamation Ordinance 2002. In the notice, the singer claimed Shafi damaged his reputation through false allegations of sexual harassment.

In his plea for early disposal of the case, Zafar pleaded that Shafi and her lawyers should not be granted any more adjournments which waste the court’s precious time. He further requested the court to decide the case within the next 30 days as it had already been almost a year since the inception of the case.

In April 2018, Shafi had taken to Twitter to publicly accuse Zafar of physically harassing her on "more than one occasion". "This happened to me despite the fact I am an empowered, accomplished woman who is known for speaking her mind!" her statement had read.

Zafar, on the other hand, "categorically" denied the allegations and threatened to take legal action against the actress. "I intend to take this through the courts of law, and to address this professionally and seriously rather than to lodge any accusations here," the singer had said on Twitter.