Imran sued for accusing lawmaker of horse-trading

Fauzia Bibi says PTI chief failed to present evidence backing up his accusations

PESHAWAR: Having been accused by her party of allegedly selling votes during the Senate elections earlier this year, a former provincial assembly lawmaker has filed a defamation suit against her party chief worth Rs0.5 billion after the latter failed to submit evidence against her.

On April 18, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, in a news conference at his Bani Gala residence in Islamabad, had alleged that as many as 18 party lawmakers in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) assembly had sold their votes. This list included some lawmakers who had defected to the PTI after the Senate polls. Ultimately, after issuing show cause notices, the party had expelled eight lawmakers.

The allegations, however, did not sit well with many of those accused who termed it engineering to get rid of them ahead of the general elections.



Amongst those accused of selling their votes was PTI lawmaker Fauzia Bibi. She had been elected to the provincial legislature on a reserved seat for women from Chitral.

Fauzia had subsequently sent defamation notices to the PTI chief, directing him to submit evidence or face court action. After Imran failed to respond within the noted timeframe, Fauzia pressed ahead and filed a suit against the former cricketer in the Peshawar High Court (PHC).

“The baseless allegations have totally damaged her political, social and family life, hence the case under section 8 of the defamation ordinance 2002, as requisite to avail remedy from the court,” Fauzia contended in her petition.

Filed through her lawyer Advocate Syed Ghufranullah Shah on Thursday, the suit claimed damages worth Rs500 million.

“The baseless allegations have caused my extreme mental torture,” her counsel told the media. He argued that his client enjoys an excellent reputation in political and social circles apart from having a successful career in politics, social and public services.

The allegations, however, have damaged her image, Shah stated.

“It was due to her public and social services that she has been elected as a member of the K-P assembly and was also assigned the responsibilities as parliamentary secretary of tourism and allied services,” the petition read.

Refuting the allegations, Fauzia’s petition states that during the Senate elections, she followed the binding directions of the party and cast votes in favour of all the senatorial candidates her party had nominated against general, served seats and technocrats seats.



But after the Senate election, the petition added, Imran started spreading ‘maliciously’ ‘false’ and  ‘baseless’ statements against her which were also widely broadcast and published in the national media.

The petitioner went on to say that after the oral accusations, the PTI secretariat issued a show cause notice to the plaintiffs.

Fauzia said that she had replied to the notice within the stipulated time and asked the chairmen PTI to conduct a proper inquiry by affording her a personal hearing so that she can confront all the evidence produced against her.

However, she said that Imran not only failed to conduct an inquiry nor was he ready to offer any proof supporting his allegations.

The eight MPs expelled from the party for horse-trading include Nargis Bibi, Dina Naz, Nagina Khan, Naseem Hayat, Yasin Khalil, Qurban Ali Khan, Ziaullah Afridi and Amjid Afridi.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 8^th, 2018.