Last week, a district sessions judge issued orders to wrap up singer and actor Ali Zafar’s defamation suit against artist Meesha Shafi by April 15, 2019.
After the orders came out, Ali Zafar has spoken about the controversy in a TV show : “I consciously decided to not say anything against her (Meesha) in this controversy. She is, after all, a woman and she has children.”
He further said that, “ It would have been way easier for me to just have taken out my phone and put all the evidence in front of public. I could have clarified myself immediately but I decided to leave it to the court.”
He said it is nature’s rule, “who digs the pit falls into it.”
Ali Zafar had filed a plea through his counsel before an additional district and session court, seeking disposal of his defamation suit against singer Meesha Shafi in a month.
Zafar had filed the defamation suit last year against Meesha Shafi, who had accused him of sexual harassment.
The suit, claiming damages of Rs. 1 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 serious and seriously rather than to lodge any accusations here,” the singer had said on Twitter