BBC News
The Lahore High Court had yesterday granted a defamation suit filed by singer Mesha Shafi against singer Ali Zafar, declaring it admissible, which was rejected by a local court in the year 2020.
Mesha Shafi had filed a defamation suit of Rs 2 billion against Ali Zafar in the Sessions Court of Lahore in 2019, which was rejected in February 2020.
According to Nighat Dad, a member of Mesha Shafi's legal team, the case was rejected by the Sessions Court because Ali Zafar had argued that the case he had filed earlier and this case was of the same nature.
It may be recalled that on April 18, 2018, popular Pakistani singer, actress and model Mesha Shafi in a tweet accused singer and actor Ali Zafar of sexual harassment.The post was made at a time when the worldwide 'Me Too' campaign was in full swing, with women raising their voices against alleged sexual harassment.
According to Nighat Dad, Ali Zafar was sued by Mesha Shafi for defaming him because when Mesha took legal action against Ali for being harassed, he spoke against Mesha in various interviews and statements. Which damaged his reputation.
"Among other things, Ali accused Mesha of doing all this because she wanted to be a Canadian citizen," he said.
What are the info of the four instances among Mesha Shafi and Ali Zafar?
The felony war among the two singers has been happening in view that 2018 and it commenced with a tweet with the aid of Mesha Shafi accusing Ali Zafar of harassing them.
Mesha Shafi wrote in his tweet that 'it isn't always smooth to talk openly like this, but it is even greater tough to remain silent. My conscience not lets in me to try this. i've been sexually pressured greater than once by means of a co-worker in my enterprise: Ali Zafar.
It failed to appear when i used to be more youthful or new to the industry. This occurred no matter me being a confident, a hit, and quiet girl. It occurred to me regardless of being a mother of . '
but, it's far important to take into account that there are currently four cases pending among Mesha Shafi and Ali Zafar, of which two instances were filed by Ali Zafar and two through Mesha Shafi.
the primary case on this regard turned into filed with the aid of Ali Zafar against Mesha Shafi. Ali Zafar had filed a suit against Mesha within the Lahore classes court docket in June 2018 under the Defamation Ordinance 2002. It turned into alleged that Mesha Shafi had tarnished his image by way of making fake allegations.
Mesha Shafi then lodged a complaint against Ali Zafar with the provincial ombudsman concerning harassment, which became rejected through the ombudsman.
After that the same request went to the Governor of Punjab and it was also rejected from there.
Mesha had challenged the ombudsman and the governor's decision to dismiss her complaint and demanded action under the Punjab Protection for Women Act 2012 against harassment in the workplace in the Lahore High Court.
Following a hearing in the Lahore High Court in October 2019, his appeal was dismissed on the grounds that an agreement had been reached between Mesha Shafi and the company for the provision of services and the relationship between the parties as per a clause. Will not be considered a job.
Mesha has since appealed to the Supreme Court against the decision and no hearing has been held on the case for the past one year.
Then in November 2018, Ali Zafar lodged a complaint against Mesha with the FIA's Cyber Crime Wing.
Ali Zafar had also lodged a complaint with the FIA Cyber Crime Wing alleging that a number of social media accounts were posting "threatening and defamatory material" against him.
He also provided details of some Twitter and Facebook accounts as evidence to support his claim.
In the complaint, Ali Zafar had alleged that in April 2018, several weeks before the allegations of sexual harassment against him by Mesha Shafi and some others, several accounts had launched a campaign against him on social media. ۔
The FIA is investigating.
After all this, Mesha Shafi also approached the court again and he also filed a defamation suit against the singer Ali Zafar, on which Ali Zafar requested the court to stay the trial.
On his request, the court granted his request to stay the hearing of the case in February 2020 and issued orders stating that the charges of both Ali Zafar and Mesha Shafi and the nature of the cases are the same and the claim of singer Ali Zafar is already pending. And the series of witness testimonies has begun.
After which Mesha Shafi challenged this decision in the Lahore High Court and now his petition has been granted.
