Islamabad: Senior journalist Ansar Abbasi, has served a legal notice for defamation on PPP leader Sharmila Farooqui for her slanderous allegations against him in a TV talk show on July 17.
According to news item publcihed in the The News Internatioan, where Abbasi is Editor Investigation, Barrister Ehtesham Amir-ud-din, Advocate High Court, served the notice, which sought from the PPP leader an unequivocal apology from the journalist for her remarks. Failing which civil and criminal proceedings would be initiated against Sharmila Farooqui.
The paper said the legal notice says that leveling of unfounded and defamatory allegations on television amounts to an act of defamation as defined under Section 3 of the Defamation Ordinance 2002 (“Ordinance”), which is punishable and actionable as libel under the Ordinance.
The paper said Sharmila Farooqui, her father Usman Farooqi and mother Anisa Farooqui were accused by NAB of committing mega corruption through a 2000 reference and later in 2001 in less than a year, all the three accused had brokered a plea bargain deal with NAB authorities and returned the looted money. In April 2001, under this plea bargain deal, approved by NAB court, Sharmila, her father and mother stood disqualified to hold any public office for the next 21 years.
However, the NAB law was amended later and this period was reduced to ten years. Sharmila was appointed as adviser to CM Sindh in 2008 despite her disqualification to hold any public office starting from 2001. Ansar Abbasi had filed a story on “illegal” appointment of Sharmila Farooqui as Sindh cabinet member on May 12, 2010.
It said It was quite interesting that after the lapse of over two years of the publication of this news story, which also contained Ms Farooqi’s version, Sharmila in a TV talk show came up with slanderous allegations against the senior journalist.
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