LAHORE – The lawyer of Meesha Shafi, Mr Saqib Jillani, on Thursday pleaded for more time to prepare for the cross-examination of Ali Zafar in a one billion defamation suit filed against her client.
However, the evidence of witness Sara Rehman was completed and the court adjourned the proceedings for Sept 19, 2019.
After Sara’s cross-examination, Ali Zafar arrived in the court of Additional Sessions Judge Amjad Ali Shah for his but Meesha’s lawyer refused demanding more time for preparation. This led to a heated debate between Ali Zafar and Meesha’s lawyer in the courtroom.
Ali Zafar submitted that he had specially come back from abroad for his cross-examination. He said that justice delayed is justice denied and his case was being deliberately delayed with eight adjournments taken by Miss Shafi’s legal team till date. He requested the court to hear his case on a daily basis.
Ali Zafar claimed that the Supreme Court of Pakistan had endorsed the Lahore High Courts’ order to conclude the defamation case by July 20, 2019.
Ali Zafar’s lawyer Mr Hasham pleaded before the court that Ali Zafar’s cross-examination should be started immediately, saying that Meesha’s lawyer Mr Saqib had asked for two weeks of preparation when Ali had presented his testimony in the court in the first week of July.
“However, we granted two and a half months for preparation instead, but Mr Saqib is still saying that he is not prepared enough which is totally unfair and unjustified,” Ali Zafar’s lawyer pleaded.
However, the court adjourned the case 19th of September.
Earlier, Ali Zafar’s witness Sara Rehman was shown the pictures of Hollywood actress Angelina Jolie, Gywn Paltrow and Harvey Weinstein by Meesha Shafi’s counsel and asked questions about her opinion on their case. However, Sara denied her knowledge about these cases of harassment in Hollywood.
Sara said that she was a very good friend of Ali Zafar’s wife. She stood by her statement that when Meesha saw Ali Zafar in the party of fashion designer HSY she jumped over an armless bench to meet Ali Zafar.
In her cross-examination, Sara also said that one cannot say that sexual harassment doesn’t exist but some woman might use it for personal gain or personal vendetta.
