Mehwish Hayat publicly addresses recent defamation controversy

Lollywood's accomplished actress Mehwish Hayat has had a rough start in 2023. While the previous year brought her many accolades and ended on a good note, this year has been quite harsh with the Punjab Nahi Jaungi star as she has been roped in a controversy resulting in public outrages and forcing Hayat to seek justice through court.

The Tamgha-e-Imtiaz recipient was initially quiet on the topic letting things mellow but well all hell broke loose on the internet, Hayat was seen knocking on the doors of the judiciary to hold accountable the perpetrators.

The Mere Qatil Mere Dildar famed actress had been subjected to character assassination and allegedly blamed for acting as a cahoot for higher authorities to honeytrap politicians and prominent media figures. These false allegations leveled by an analyst and retired army major, Adil Raja, caused an uproar on the internet where many people demanded concrete proof. Having enough of the maligning, the Punjab Nahi Jaungi actress came forth to officially address the issue and notify the perpetrators of legal action.

Initially, Hayat approached the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing, asking it to look into the matter. However, due to a lack of progress, the Load Wedding actress approached the Sindh High Court (SHC). A petition was filed in the SHC by Hayat that reads that the actress is “aggrieved by a social media storm generated and precipitating due to certain videos made by an individual by the name Adil Farooq Raja who claims to be a self-professed ‘geopolitical analyst’ and ‘rights activist’ maintaining a YouTube channel by the name of Soldier Speaks.

During her visit to the Sindh Court, the Baaji actress spoke to media outlets to let her side of the story be known. Hayat said, “I had never thought that my year will start like this. I didn’t know I would be visiting court but here I am. I reached out to the court based on the false, character-assassinating allegations leveled by Adil Raja. My family and I have been through a lot due to this mess. Now that I am at my wit's end, I refuse to allow this to happen anymore. This will longer be allowed to be brushed under the rug as I will seek justice through proper channels." 

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Along with Hayat, actresses Mahira Khan, Kubra Khan, and Sajal Aly have also been falsely accused of honey trapping, although retd. Major Adil Raja had only taken the initials of "top models and actresses of Pakistan" in his video. Raja later clarified that he did not attack any of these four women. Hayat isn't the only one to have taken legal action against Raja so far, actress Kubra Khan too threatened the analyst of producing evidence or retracting his statement.

On the work front, Hayat was recently seen in Ms. Marvel and London Nahi Jaunga.