— Daily Mail so far fails to prove allegations against PM Shehbaz Sharif: Marriyum
ISLAMABAD: The London High Court of Justice has rejected Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s plea for an indefinite adjournment in the defamation case against British newspaper Daily Mail.
According to a copy of court order shared by Daily Mail reporter David Rose, Justice Nicklin conducted the hearing on the case on November 9, 2022.
The PM’s counsels reportedly sought more time for their client to submit response in the case, saying that the prime minister of Pakistan was fully occupied with legal duties.
“The prime minister and common man are equal in this court,” media reports quoted the UK judge as saying in response to the PM’s request.
If PM Shehbaz amended reply is deemed not to comply with the requirements set down by law next month, his action will be “struck out”, according to journalist Rose.
“If that happened, he would have to pay all our [legal] costs since he brought the case. The same would be true if he and Ali Imran withdrew,” he added.
In a statement, Information Minister Marriyum Aurangzeb said that the British newspaper delayed the defamation case for one and a half years on different pretexts.
“We have won this case to the extent of stating our position,” she claimed.
The information minister said the next hearing of the case has been fixed for December 13 in which she said a detailed response to the allegations will be submitted to the court.
PM Shahbaz’s brief response in the case has already been submitted while the Daily Mail has not been able to prove its allegations in the court yet, she claimed.
“Now it [Daily Mail] will have to face the law.”
In 2020, Shehbaz had filed a case in the London High Court against the British daily and its reporter David Rose for publishing a “fabricated and defamatory” report against him in July 2019.
“It was a fabricated and defamatory story which published in the Daily Mail. It was a part of propaganda launched by [Prime Minister] Imran Niazi against the PML-N in the name of sham accountability,” he had said while addressing a news conference in London in January, 2020.
The story ad appeared On July 14, 2019 in the British newspaper accusing former Punjab chief minister and his family of embezzling millions of pounds out of £500 million aid lent by the Department for International Development (DFID) for 2005 earthquake victims.
As soon as the report surfaced, the PML-N had termed it a conspiracy against Shehbaz hatched by the PTI government.
Daily Mail so far fails to prove allegations against PM Shehbaz Sharif: Marriyum
Minister for Information and Broadcasting Marriyum Aurangzeb claimed that the British newspaper Daily Mail had so far failed to prove the allegations levelled by its journalist David Rose in an article against Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif about alleged misappropriation of public funds.
“Now, the Daily Mail will have to face the law,” she said in a news statement. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif filed a defamation case against the Daily Mail and its journalist in a court of the United Kingdom a couple of years back.
According to Marriyum, the trail of defamation case would be held in “December 2023”.
A short reply in the case had already been submitted on behalf of PM Shehbaz Sharif, she said in the statement.
The minister said the judge had fixed December 13, 2022 for next hearing of the case and the reply on the allegations needed to be submitted by the same date. She said cost of the case was being paid and “we have already won our case on the stage of presentation.”
She said the Daily Mail had opted to the delaying tactics to delay the case.
