PTI chief Imran Khan. PHOTO: REUTERS
A district and sessions court on Monday summoned Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in a defamation suit filed by ex-minister for industries, commerce and technical education Bakht Baidar.
Baidar’s lawyer Babar Yousafzai told the court his client was sacked by Chief Minister Pervez Khattak on the directives of Khan after “false allegations of corruption were levelled against him.”
Yousafzai informed the court a defamation notice was issued to Khan last month, demanding the PTI chief to present proof substantiating his claims, but he failed to reply.
Judge Shaibar Khan then issued a short order stating “the instant suit filed by Bakht Baidar Khan through his counsel Babar Khan Yousafzai be registered and the defendant be summoned on January 7, 2014.”
“The allegations levelled by the defendant against the plaintiff are far from the truth. They have been, and are made, to harm the reputation of the plaintiff in the eyes of the public at large, and in the eyes of his party, colleagues, peers and family in particular,” reads the damage suit filed under Section 9 of the Defamation Ordinance 2002. “The defendant should be restrained from making any libelous or slanderous statements against the plaintiff.”
Yousafzai further argued the allegations were never communicated to the plaintiff by the chief minister or the speaker of the provincial assembly. The defendant has been asked for Rs1 billion in damages besides publishing and broadcasting an unconditional apology to the plaintiff.
Baidar won the May 11 general elections from PK-97 as a candidate of the Qaumi Watan Party (QWP). In 1979 and 1983, he was elected as a member of the then district council of Dir.
On November 13, on the directives of the PTI chairman, Khattak fired two ministers of QWP – former minister for environment Malik Ibrar Hussain Tanoli and Bakht Baidar – over charges of corruption.
After the ouster of two ministers, QWP Provincial Chairman Sikandar Sherpao held a press conference and said he would now sit in the opposition benches in the provincial assembly. He resigned from his post as senior minister and stated the removal of two party ministers was “a discriminatory act as no action was taken against PTI ministers.”
On November 19, Baidar, who is also the secretary general of QWP, sent a defamation notice of Rs1 billion to the PTI chairman for damaging his reputation and removing him from the cabinet without proof or any prior notice.
Published in The Express Tribune, December 10th, 2013.
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