LAHORE:A local court on Wednesday again issued bailable arrest warrants of singer Meesha Shafi and Maham Javaid in a case of running a vilification campaign on social media against singer-actor Ali Zafar.
Judicial Magistrate Ghulam Murtaza Virk conducted the case proceedings, wherein the accused – Iffat Omar, Syed Faizan Raza, and others appeared.
During the proceedings, a counsel requested to exempt Meesha Shafi and Maham Javaid from personal appearance for one-day as they were out of the country due to their professional engagements and submitted applications for the purpose.
However, the court noted that it had dismissed their exemption applications and issued bailable arrest warrants, at the previous hearing. Therefore, without surrendering before the court, they could not move other applications for exemption for one-day, it added.
The court rejected the applications for exemption and again issued bailable arrest warrants of Meesha and Maham for February 19.
The court also noted that if the complainant Ali Zafar’s counsel did not advance his arguments on applications filed by accused – Ali Gull and Leena Ghani – on the next date of hearing, then, the court would decide the same after hearing arguments of the prosecutor.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) had filed a challan (charge-sheet) against Meesha Shafi and seven others in the case of running a vilification campaign on social media against singer-actor Ali Zafar.
It is pertinent to mention here that the FIA had filed the challan in the FIR registered on complaint of Ali Zafar.
The agency declared Meera Shafi alias Meesha Shafi, Iffat Omar, Maham Javaid, Leena Ghani, Haseemus Zaman, Fariha Ayub, Syed Faizan Raza, and Ali Gul Pir guilty in the challan.
The FIA alleged that Meesha Shafi posted false allegations of sexual harassment against Ali Zafar in April 2018 and she failed to produce any evidence in favour of her allegations. The other suspects also failed to provide evidence in favour of the direct allegations posted by them on social media, it added.
In November 2018, Ali Zafar had moved a complaint with FIA, stating that the allegations against him were made under a premeditated plan conspired by Meesha Shafi and others and various fake social media accounts were used for the purpose.
Ali Zafar had also filed a defamation suit against Meesha Shafi and it was pending before a sessions court.