LAHORE – A sessions court on Wednesday imposed a fine of Rs10,000 on a Pakistani singer after her lawyer was absent during proceedings in a defamation case filed by a fellow musician.
The hearing of the Meesha Shafi-Ali Zafar case has been adjourned till April 17.
Ambreen Qureshi, the lawyer for Ali Zafar said Shafi’s failure to appear in court was a blatant attempt to delay the case.
Justice Masood Jahangir of the Lahore High Court (LHC) had on Tuesday suspended the order of a lower court, directing the trial court judge to conclude the defamation case by April 15.
The time limit was increased by three months and Justice Jahangir has also observed that the Shafi’s legal team was at liberty to see a further extension.
Last year in March, singer-actor Ali Zafar had filed a plea through his counsel before an additional district and sessions court, seeking disposal of his defamation suit against singer Meesha Shafi in one month.
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.
Ali Zafar categorically declined all such allegations and decided to take legal action against the actress. “I intend to take this through the courts of law, and to address this professionally and seriously rather than to lodge any accusations here,” Ali Zafar had tweeted.
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