Court orders Meesha Shafi, others to appear before it on Oct 6

Denies personal attendance exemption requests of four suspects, issues warrants for two others

LAHORE:

A district and sessions court of Lahore has summoned singer Meesha Shafi and others in a criminal case filed by singer Ali Zafar, and denied requests for exemption from attending hearings of four accused.

During the proceedings, the court also issued bailable arrest warrants for actress Iffat Omer while non-bailable arrest warrants were issued for singer and entertainer Ali Gul Pir.

The court ordered Shafi, Maham Javed and other accused to personally appear at the next hearing of the case.

The orders were issued after the accused failed to attend the hearing held on Tuesday.

The judge rejected the pleas for exemption filed by Leena Ghani, Fareeha Ayub, Faizan Raza and Haseemur Zaman and said that the persons failed to satisfy it on the subject mentioned in their applications regarding the exemption.

On the occasion, the counsel for the Federal Investigation Authority (FIA) also opposed the requests for exemption from appearance in the case.

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Subsequently, the court adjourned the hearing of the case till October 6.

Earlier, in September, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA)'s special court registered a First Information Report against Shafi, Omar and seven others on the accusation of running a social media semar campaign against Ali Zafar.

According to the FIR registered on April 19, 2018, Shafi had accused Zafar of sexual harassment in a Twitter post. In November 2018, Zafar had protested against the social media campaign against him, and lodged a complaint with the FIA ​​Cyber ​​Crime Wing.

Zafar, ​​in his application, argued that the allegations against him were made under a premeditated plan conspired by Shafi, her friend and her lawyer. "Whereas, numerous fake [social media] accounts were also created to run the 'Me Too' campaign against him."