ISLAMABAD: Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif has filed a Rs 10 billion defamation suit against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan on Friday.
The petition, which has been filed under sections 4 and 9 of the Defamation Ordinance, 2002, states that Imran Khan falsely accused Shehbaz Sharif of making him a financial offer for his silence 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 [Shehbaz].”
Moreover, it states that Imran claimed that 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 states that Imran Khan made the “utterly false statement” on different television shows as well as to a public gathering.
On April 25, Khan during a gathering at Shaukat Khanum Hospital alleged that he had been made an offer in the Panama case.
“Just imagine how much money he offered me to be silent. Rs10 billion. If he can offer me this much money, just imagine how much he would offer to others. That is why if we don’t maintain public pressure on this issue, then after two months it will be dragged to next year,” Khan had claimed.
INP/AH