Court accepts Meesha's petition, Ali Zafar's case to be heard by a different judge

Shafi had filed a petition against the judge hearing Zafar’s defamation case

LAHORE: Lahore session court on Wednesday accepted Meesha Shafi’s appeal for changing the judge after the singer filed a 'no confidence' petition for lack of confidence in Ali Zafar's defamation suit.

The court has issued orders to promptly transfer the defamation case to a different court.

The petition was heard at Lahore’s session court, where the session judge, Khalid Nawaz headed Shafi’s appeal.



The Lahore session judge then issued decision on Shafi’s petition, ordering to transfer the case immediately to an additional session judge, Amjad Ali Shah. Shah will conduct the hearing of the case on May 11.

Earlier, Shafi on Saturday filed a petition against the judge hearing Ali Zafar’s defamation case.

“The judge has shown a clear and obvious bias in favour of the plaintiff which is apparent from the mode and manner in which he has so far conducted the proceedings,” the petition read. “The defendant does not have any confidence that the learned judge will be able to impartially and fairly proceeding in the case and hence desires to transfer her above-mentioned case to any other court of competent jurisdiction.”



The petition noted that the judge had “advised the witnesses not to give long answers as he may contradict himself or he may prejudice his own stance”.

Shafi requested a prompt order for transferring the defamation claim to some other judge, granted by a Lahore session judge.

It is pertinent to mention that the additional session judge Shakeel Ahmed is hearing Zafar’s defamation claim for past six months.

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