LAHORE: PML-N senior leader and former defence minister Khwaja Asif has sent a legal notice for payment of damages to Usman Dar, a former leader of PTI, and his mother Rehana Dar over ‘slanderous’ allegations.

The notice sent through Advocate Mohammad Ibrahim Khan said Dar and his mother levelled baseless and malicious allegations with intent to defame Mr Asif for immoral gains in the upcoming elections.

It demanded Mr Dar to tender an unconditional apology within 14 days or pay Rs1 billion as damages to uphold the honour of women in society and prevent the use of derogatory remarks for political gains against Mr Asif.

The notice said the PML-N leader, despite ‘serious’ defamatory allegations made by Ms Rehana Dar, chose to claim a token amount of Re1 from her.

Mr Asif also warned the respondents to be refrained from any malicious and false allegations against him.

A few days ago, Usman Dar’s mother levelled allegations through a video, claiming that Khwaja Asif had sent 20 armed men to their house who had subjected them to violence.

Dar had also made allegations that the police raided their house without a warrant at the behest of Khwaja Asif.

Articles 62 and 63: The Lahore High Court was requested on Wednesday toimplement the provisions of articles 62 and 63 of the Constitution during scrutiny of the nomination papers of the candidates for the general election.

Munir Ahmad, a lawyer, filed a petition through Advocate Azhar Siddique pleading that the ECP had not uploaded the details of bank defaulters and tax evaders on its website. He stated that the high court had in 2013 ordered the ECP to create a database of dual nationals and defaulters on utility bills and government dues, cases/inquiries pending with the NAB, FIA, ACE or any other legal forum. He argued that by disclosing details on the ECP website, objections against the candidates can be raised.

The petitioner asked the court to order the ECP to release the data on its website as the last date for the scrutiny of the nomination papers is Dec 31.

He asked the court to order the ECP to implement articles 62 & 63 in letter and spirit and information pertaining to the databases containing complete record of the politicians and the candidates.

Published in Dawn, December 28th, 2023