ISLAMABAD: A local court on Saturday fined Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan for seeking an adjournment of the hearing in the Rs10 billion defamation case filed against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz leader and Defence Minister Khawaja Asif.

Additional Sessions Judge Adnan Khan hearing Khan’s petition seeking an adjournment in the defamation case, accepted Khan’s counsel’s request and imposed a fine of Rs5,000 on the PTI chief. The court adjourned the hearing till September 24.

Khan’s counsel, while arguing before the court said that since their client was busy holding public gatherings in different parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and Punjab; therefore, he could not appear before it today and kindly the adjourn the hearing of the case.

The PML-N leader’s lawyer, advocate Ali Shah Geelani, appeared before the court during the hearing, but his cross-examination of Khan’s statement was postponed due to adjournment.

The court accepted Khan’s counsel’s request to adjourn the hearing, after which the hearing was adjourned till September 24.

Khan had filed the defamation suit against Khawaja Asif in 2012 for recovery of Rs10 billion as the latter had at a press conference levelled allegations about misappropriation of and money laundering through the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Trust (SKMT) funds.

In his lawsuit, the former prime minister had referred to the defence minister’s press conference from August 1, 2012, in which he alleged that the PTI supremo had lost a massive amount of funds donated to his cancer hospital in “real estate gambling”. Khan termed the allegations “false and defamatory”.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2022