Actor Sarwat Gilani threatened legal action against actor Feroze Khan for revealing her personal contact details online, posting screenshots of what appear to be call logs featuring over 100 missed calls from unknown numbers. Filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy also posted screenshots of her call logs on Instagram stories, with the caption, "Leaking personal info including phone numbers and addresses is a criminal offense FYI."
Gilani wrote: “It is bizarre and despicable that private information, including phone numbers, of various famous individuals has been publicly shared on the absurd pretext of issuing legal notice to them by Feroze Khan.”
She called these actions both “clearly illegal” and demonstrative of a “total lack of maturity to handle matters in a civilised way”.
“Two days ago Feroze Khan had one ex-wife and her lawyer now he will have to face 10 celebrities and their lawyers after him. Good luck!”
The drama continues
On Tuesday, Feroze Khan announced on Twitter that he has served defamation notices to those who have perpetuated "false and baseless" allegations against him. The actor was referring to accusations made by his former spouse Aliza Sultan of domestic abuse.
Khan's initial post on Instagram announced a defamation notice. This note included names of nine celebrities as well as their private information like their mobile pone numbers and in some cases, their addresses. The post was later deleted. Khan's defamation notice was apparently in response to members of the community supporting Sultan's claims.
Gilani also tagged writer Mira Sethi, filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy actors Yasir Hussain, Osman Khalid Butt, Aiman Khan, Asim Azhar, Minal Khan, Farhan Saeed and Muneeb Butt — all of whom were named in the notice Khan deleted.
Writer Sethi shared a screenshot of Gilani's post, writing how she echoes her sentiment adding that her lawyer will respond to the notice and that she will continue to stand by Khan’s former wife.
Sharing someone’s phone number without their consent is illegal under sections 20 and 24 of the Pakistan Electronic Crimes Act, 2016.
Section 20 refers to offences against the dignity of a natural person and punishes whoever intentionally and publicly exhibits or displays or transmits any information through any information system, which they know to be false, and intimidates or harms the reputation or privacy of a natural person with an imprisonment of up to three years and/or a maximum fine of Rs1 million.
Sultan and Khan married in 2018 and share a son and daughter. They announced their intention to divorce in September, and said they were in the middle of court proceedings discussing custody and visitation rights. During that process, Sultan alleged she was physically and psychologically abused by her former partner during marriage. Khan refused to comment at the time.
In October, Sultan shared emergency room records which marked “blunt injuries on both her arms, her back, chest and face” as well as photos of the bruises as evidence of abuse. A day after Sultan’s allegations, Khan denied the accusations and vowed to take legal action against the perpetrators of the “rumours”.
“I, Feroze Khan vehemently deny any and baseless, malicious and untruthful allegations which have been levelled against me and are circulating on the social media rumour mill. These allegations have no basis in truth or reality. I fully intend to institute legal proceedings against the perpetrators of these actions and I have instructed my legal team accordingly,” he had written in an Instagram story.
A Karachi family court is hearing two cases — one filed by Khan for custody of their two children and another filed by Sultan for maintenance money for the children.
Khan’s legal team argues that the reports have been “fabricated”. He had also requested the court to restrain his ex-wife from sharing information or content relating to their personal lives on social media.