LAHORE: Ali Zafar has filed a lawsuit against Meesha Shafi claiming that she defamed him in her tweet.
Zafar filed the lawsuit under defamation ordinance 2002 in the Lahore High Court appealing for an apology over placing unsubstantiated allegations on him along with a fine of Rs1 billion.
In April, Meesha had accused the fellow singer of sexual harassment through a tweet:
Sharing this because I believe that by speaking out about my own experience of sexual harassment, I will break the culture of silence that permeates through our society. It is not easy to speak out.. but it is harder to stay silent. My conscience will not allow it anymore #MeToo pic.twitter.com/iwex7e1NLZ
— MEESHA SHAFI (@itsmeeshashafi) April 19, 2018
The singer-turned-actor wrote in his statement: “The tweet dated 19.04.2018 and the Instep Article dated 21.04.2018 are false, slanderous, and defamatory statements, stand published and originate from the defendant, therefore, have caused tremendous injury to the Plaintiff’s reputation, good will, livelihood; being attempts to tarnish the good image of the plaintiff. As the defamatory statements are patently false, it can only be concluded that this malicious campaign has been launched against the plaintiff as part of a motivated conspiracy to tarnish the plaintiff’s good image through making false accusations. The defendant has associated herself with the global #MeToo movement, with one of the launchers of the #MeToo movement ‘Rose McGowan’ labeling the defendant as ‘a heroine for our times’.”
The notice while further breaking down Rs 1bn fine stated, “Be that as it may, that due to the defamatory campaign being spearheaded by the defendant, the plaintiff besides special damages in case of defamation further suffered the following damages:
Mental torture 2 crores
Loss of contacts 8 crores
Loss of reputation/ goodwill 50 crores
Loss of business opportunities 40 crores”
Previously, Zafar’s council had sent a legal notice to Meesha asking her to delete the tweet and issue an apology on twitter, failing which he will file a Rs1 billion defamation case against her.
