ISLAMABAD : Nov 11,2022. A London high court on Friday ordered prime minister , Shahbaz Sharif, to pay legal cost amounting to € 30000/ to Daily Mail for not submitting his reply to the defence filed by the newspaper in support of its story . The court also fined Ali Imran , son in law of prime minister ,Shahbaz Sharif, amounting to € 27000/ in the case.
The court has fixed December 13, 2022 deadline for Shahbaz Sharif and his son in law to submit the reply in support of their defamation suit.
The judge threw out a prime minister , Shahbaz Sharif:s request for grant of indefinite stay in his defamation case filed against Daily Mail , a UK based newspaper, for publishing a “defamatory” story involving him and his son in law in corruption in funds provided by Department For International Development (DFID) for financial support to the survivors of deadly earthquake that struck Pakistan and Azad Kashmir in 2005.
The counsel for prime minister , Shahbaz Sharif , had submitted a request with the London High Court which is hearing the defamation suit filed by prime minister , Shahbaz Sharif against the British newspaper.
The counsel for Mr Shahbaz Sharif pleaded to the court that since his client was a prime minister of Pakistan and busy in performing his professional duties and therefore the defamation case may be granted indefinite stay .
To this, the judge ruled that in this court a prime minister and a commoner are equal and the request for indefinite stay in the case is rejected.
Daily Mail had published the story in question in July 2019 and accused the prime minister and his son in law of making corruption in funds provided by DFID for 2005 earthquake survivors .
The prime minister had filed the defamation case against the newspaper and its reporter, David Rose, for publishing “defamatory” story against him and his son in law.
The defamation suit can add to embarrassment for Sharifs if they do not file reply in the court in support of their claim by December 13 next. It can also result in huge penality that will have to be paid to the newspaper in the case Mr Shahbaz Sharif and his son in law do not meet the deadline to file reply in the case
Although Information minister , Maryam Aurangzeb, responded to the media to play down the UK court order in Shahbaz Sharif’s defamation case .She claimed that the prime minister has already won the case against the newspaper.
But one may be failed to understand what the lady minister tried to say in her statement in the case. One may ask the lady minister why the UK court fined the prime minister Shahbaz Sharif , in Friday’s hearing and his son in law if Mr Shahbaz Sharif and Mr Ali Imran have already won the defamation case against Daily Mail.
While responding to the case, the lady minister probably forgot that the case is in the UK court whose judge reminded the counsel of Mr Shahbaz Sharif that a prime minister and a commoner are equal in his court .
Mr Raja Javed, chairman International Peace Committee, adds from London.
Mr Shahbaz Sharif has no right to appeal in the UK high court which fined him and his son in law in Daily Mail defamation case.