‘Rs10b bribe offer’: Lahore court issues another notice to chairman PTI

Judge has now asked Imran to submit response by September 25

LAHORE: An additional district and sessions judge, on Saturday, issued another notice to Chairman Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan in a defamation suit filed by Chief Minister Punjab Shehbaz Sharif over his claim that the PML-N government had offered him Rs10 billion to stay mum on the Panama leaks.

The judge has now asked Imran to submit his response by September 25. The court, previously, had also asked him to submit a reply, which was never sent on his behalf.



Shehbaz Sharif recently knocked the doors of Lahore District Courts, seeking Rs10 billion in damages from the Chairman PTI for ruining his name during televised talk shows and public gatherings.

In his petition, the provincial CM has said that he is a respectable individual from a noble family, who enjoys an excellent reputation in both national and international circles and a long, illustrious career in politics and public service to his credit.

Following the general elections in 2013, he was re-elected as a member of the provincial assembly (MPA) and was later made Chief Minister Punjab for a third-term, said the petition. “I have served twice as president of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N),” Shehbaz added.

The provincial chief minister also implored that he was widely known and respected for his credibility, hard work, integrity and competence.

"The defendant, Imran Khan, also a political rival, during the last week of April 2017, have been uttering/spreading and resorting to the publication and circulation, directly and/or by way of innuendos, maliciously false, baseless and unfounded statements and representations against my client to the effect that he had offered you a sum of Rs10 billion in lieu of your withdrawing/backing off from the Panamagate case" reads the petition.

Shehbaz maintained that Imran ruined his image not only in front of the Pakistani nation but also worldwide wherever the talk shows were aired and watched.

On April 28, 2017, he said, the defendant held a public gathering on the Parade Ground where he repeatedly leveled false allegations against him.

According to the petition, Imran Khan continued to call them ‘a mafia’ and claimed that he would not disclose the name of that person who offered him money because he knew the PML-N leadership would create problems for him.



“The false and defamatory statements having been widely communicated, circulated, disseminated and got broadcast, inter alia, through print and electronic media, lowered, and/or tended to lower the plaintiff in the estimation of others and reduce him to ridicule, unjust criticism, dislike, hatred and contempt and causing him extreme mental torture, agony and anxiety,” said the petition.

The CM Punjab requested the court that a decree for recovery of Rs 10billion compensation for the publication of the previously mentioned defamatory content be passed against Imran Khan.