Defamation: Jahangir Siddiqui sues for Rs5b

The Sindh High Court issued notices for January 5 to the defendants.

KARACHI: The Sindh High Court issued notices for January 5 to defendants in a lawsuit filed by Jahangir S. Siddiqui of the former JS bank here on Friday.

The plaintiff filing the suit for defamation sought damages worth Rs5 billion for alleged allegations in the press and media. The defendants are Qamarunnisa, wife of Syed Irshad Ali, Syed Eijaz Ali Naveed, Ghanwar Khan, the Anti-Corruption Establishment director, and EDO Revenue Mustafa Jamal Qazi.

The plaintiff maintains that his wife Mehvish Siddiqui purchased a plot D-177 in Clifton’s Block 5 from Mohammad A. Hussain. She later transferred the plot to her son Ali Jahangir Siddiqui. The plaintiff maintained that one of the defendants made complaints to the authorities and in 2001, the Citizens-Police Liaison Committee submitted a report after an inquiry and declared the documents and ownership by Mehvish Siddiqui as genuine and lawful.

Despite this knowledge, the defendants made allegations and lodged false cases against the plaintiff, held joint press briefings and issued statements to the press to defame the plaintiff, his family members and bring his businesses into disrepute, the plaintiff stated, praying for an order of restraint against the defendants.

The bench restrained the defendants from any media onslaught and ordered them to appear before the court on January 5 to defend themselves.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 1^st, 2011.