‘Special friend?’: Petition filed to ‘clear Sharif’s name’

Petition prays that the Foreign Ministry be directed to lodge a strong protest in this regard with the United States.

LAHORE: A petition filed in the Lahore High Court seeks directions for the country’s top intelligence agency to hold an inquiry into the ‘false’ allegations by American reporter Kim Barker against PML-N chief Nawaz Sharif.

The petition also prayed that the Foreign Ministry be directed to lodge a strong protest in this regard with the United States.

Advocate Masood Gujjar filed the petition stating that the allegation of sexual harassment Barker is part of a character assassination campaign against Sharif for taking a bold stance in the case of CIA contractor Raymond Davis.

The lawyer has named Barker and the Foreign Ministry as parties in the petition.

He submits that the Inter Services Intelligence agency be directed to hold an inquiry into the allegations and submit its report before the court.

Barker, an American reporter who covered Afghanistan and Pakistan for The Chicago Tribune in 2003 claimed that she was propositioned by Sharif.

In her recently released book, The Taliban Shuffle: Strange Days in Afghanistan and Pakistan, Barker says Nawaz Sharif gave her an Apple Iphone as a gift and asked her to be his “special friend.”

Published in The Express Tribune, April 30^th, 2011.