LAHORE: A district and sessions court on Tuesday adjourned hearing of a defamation suit of singer/actor Ali Zafar against fellow singer Meesha Shafi after affidavits filed on behalf of the former’s seven witnesses rejected the incident of sexual harassment as alleged by the latter.

Advocate Rana Intizar submitted the affidavits of the witnesses, including guitarist Asad Ahmed, bass player Muhammad Ali, drummer Qaisar Zain, backing vocalist Aqsa Ali, saxophone player Muhammad Taqi, percussionist Kashif Chaman and keyboard player Joshua Keith.

All the witnesses maintained that no incident of sexual harassment, as alleged by Ms Shafi, had taken place during the jamming session held on Dec 22, 2017.

In his affidavit, guitarist Ahmed said that during the entire session, eyes of all artists were on Ms Shafi and Zafar and no incident as alleged by the female singer took place there.

Additional District and Sessions Judge Amjad Ali Shah adjourned further hearing till May 29 and summoned the witnesses for cross-examination.

In his suit, Zafar said Ms Shafi through a tweet on April 19, 2018 levelled baseless and unfounded allegations of sexual harassment against him, which resulted in tarnishing his image in public, while his family had been facing agony and pain.

He said she failed to delete the tweet and issue an apology based on the tweet within 14 days of a legal notice served on her.

He asked the court to issue a decree against Ms Shafi directing her to pay Rs1 billion as damages to him.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2019