Lawsuit against Sethi: IHC puts SC registrar on notice

Trial court rejected Sethi’s plea of dropping defamation case against him.

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has served a notice on the Supreme Court registrar after acting Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) chairman Najam Sethi moved the court seeking early hearing of a defamation case. A trial court had rejected Sethi’s plea to drop the lawsuit filed against him by the registrar.

IHC Judge Justice Noorul Haq N Qureshi, while taking up the case, issued a notice to SC Registrar Dr Faqir Hussain, who had filed a Rs300-million damages suit in the Islamabad District Court in January against Sethi for publishing a news story in his weekly magazine against him.



Earlier, a trial court rejected the application of Sethi, who had sought to drop the defamation proceedings against him and sought to transfer and fix the case before the IHC. However, the trial court rejected his plea, prompting Sethi to file an application in the IHC to take up the matter.

The Supreme Court registrar had filed a lawsuit under the Defamation Ordinance 2002 against Sethi for publication of a new story against him in The Friday Times.

The petitioner’s counsel had earlier argued that the story carried defamatory contents against his client, implying that the plaintiff was gaining monetary benefits from real estate tycoon Malik Riaz. He said that his client owned two houses in Bahria Town, but they had been purchased after making full payments.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 11^th, 2013.