Ali Zafar files Rs1 billion damages suit against Meesha Shafi

Meesha had accused Zafar of sexual harassment in a series of tweets

LAHORE: Popular singer and musician Ali Zafar filed on Saturday a defamation suit against fellow singer Meesha Shafi who has accused him of sexual harassment.

Shafi took to Twitter to allege that Zafar had subjected her to sexual harassment on more than one occasion. Zafar vehemently denied the allegation.

The claim, which triggered a firestorm on the social media, was dubbed as “Pakistan’s #MeToo moment” by some users.

Zafar filed the defamation suit through his counsel Rana Intizar, demanding Rs1 billion in damages from Meesha.



Intizar contended before the court that Meesha has damaged the reputation of his client with “baseless allegations”. He pleaded that the court direct Meesha to tender an unconditional apology and pay Rs1 billion in damages.

Zafar had previously sent a legal notice to Meesha stating that her tweets, dated April 19, 2018, are “false, slanderous, and defamatory” and “caused tremendous injury to the plaintiff’s reputation, goodwill, and livelihood.”



Since the “defamatory statements are patently false, it can only be concluded that this malicious campaign has been launched against the plaintiff as part of a motivated conspiracy to tarnish the plaintiff’s good image through making false accusations,” he said.

In the legal notice, he had demanded that Meesha apologise to the plaintiff on the same social media platform from where she had hurled “baseless allegations” and pay Rs1 billion for damaging his repute.