District court issues last warning to Meesha Shafi

Written order says singer is playing ‘hide and seek’ before the court

LAHORE:

A district court in Lahore has issued written order of the last hearing of the case pertaining to running of social media campaign against actor-cum-singer Ali Zafar, stating that singer Meesha Shafi had made “mockery” of the process of law and court.

In September 2020, the FIA's special court had registered an FIR against singer Meesha, model Iffat Omar and nine others on charges of running a social media campaign against Zafar.

Other than Meesha and Iffat, Leena Ghani, Fareeha Ayub, Maham Javed, Ali Gul Pir, Haseemuz Zaman Khan, Humna Raza and Syed Faizan Raza were nominated in the FIR.

Read more: ‘I felt it, did not see it’, Meesha says of harassment incident during court hearing

Meesha had accused Zafar of sexual harassment on Twitter. Subsequently, Zafar reported the social media campaign against him to the FIA ​​ Cyber ​​Crime Wing and lodged a complaint.

Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk has issued a four-page detailed order of the last hearing of the case.

In its written order, the court stated that Meesha had made “mockery of the process of law and process of court”. It said that the singer was “playing hide and seek before the court”.

Also read: Understanding the Meesha Shafi-Ali Zafar squabble

The court order said that the trial was being “badly hampered” due to the absence of accused Meesha and Maham, adding that their plea for exemption from appearance and appointment of a representative was being dismissed.

The court issued last warning to both Meesha and Maham and issued their arrest warrants besides rejecting Iffat’s request for exemption from appearance.

The court also dismissed Pir and Leena petitions on the disposal of case stating that they had not spoken in accordance with the law in their pleas.