Popular Pakistani singer and musician Ali Zafar has filed a defamation suit against fellow singer Meesha Shafi, who had accused him of sexual harassment. Ali, who has worked in well-known films such as Tere Bin Laden, Mere Brother Ki Dulhan to name a few, has vehemently denied the allegation, after Shafi alleged that Zafar had subjected her to sexual harassment on more than one occasion.
The claim triggered a massive outrage on social media, was dubbed as “Pakistan’s #MeToo moment” by some users. Zafar filed the defamation suit through his counsel Rana Intizar, demanding Rs 1 billion in damages from Shafi. Intizar contended before the court that Shafi has damaged the reputation of his client with “baseless allegations”.
Zafar had previously sent a legal notice to Meesha stating that her tweets, dated April 19, 2018, are “false, slanderous, and defamatory” and “caused tremendous injury to the plaintiff’s reputation, goodwill, and livelihood”.
Since 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”, Intizar said, reports Gulf Times.
