Pak court bars singer from slandering Zafar

A Pakistani court has barred popular singer-cum-actor  Meesha Shafi from making slanderous and libelous remarks against artist-singer Ali Zafar. The court also asked her to submit her reply by July 5 in the Rs 1 billion defamation case filed against her by Zafar. In April, Shafi on social media had accused Zafar of sexual harassment on more than one occasion. During  the hearing, Zafar’s counsel rejected all of Shafi’s allegations, terming them baseless and false. “Shafi was using it as a means of achieving cheap publicity,” Hussain claimed.

The suit reads: “As the defamatory statements are patently false, it can only be concluded that this malicious campaign has been launched against the plaintiff as part of a motivated conspiracy to tarnish the plaintiff’s good image through making false accusations.

“The defendant has associated herself with the global #MeToo movement, with one of the launchers of the #MeToo movement Rose McGowan labeling the defendant as ‘a heroine for our times’.”

Earlier too Meesha Shafi had received a legal notice from Zafar but the singer-songwriter did not pay any heed, failing which Zafar slapped 100 crore defamation case. The 36-year-old had alleged that Zafar harassed her on multiple occasions and that “my conscience does not allow me to be silent anymore.”