Singer Ali Zafar’s defamation suit against Meesha Shafi still lingers in court, following a no-show multiple times on part of the latter and her witnesses. In a latest development, a sessions court on Monday deferred the cross-examination of actor and show host Iffat Omar. While she was expected to appear before the court at 11:30am, the former supermodel reportedly arrived late, almost 10 minutes before break time at 12:50pm, reported Dawn. Just as Zafar’s legal counsel, Advocate Umar Gill started the cross-examination of Omar, it was paused soon after due to the unavailability of the typist of the presiding judge.
Omar also requested for the cross-examination to be postponed, citing she was exhausted as she had travelled from Karachi to Lahore and reached the court straight from the airport. She asked the judge to adjourn the hearing. Presiding Judge Imtiaz Ahmad postponed the hearing till December 12 with a direction to Ms Shafi’s counsel Advocate Saqib Jillani to ensure presence of the witnesses on the next date at 10am for the cross-examination.
While Omar had recorded her testimony in the case last year, her cross-examination was still awaited. Earlier, she he had told the court that both Shafi and her mother, actor Saba Hamid enjoyed a good reputation in the showbiz industry and were highly respected. Omar refused to believe that the mother-daughter duo would lie about such a grave matter. In his suit, Zafar submitted that Shafi, through a tweet on April 19, 2018, had levelled baseless allegations of sexual harassment against him, which tarnished his image in public, while his family had been facing agony and pain. He mentioned that Shafi failed to delete her tweet carrying the allegations or issue an apology within 14 days of a legal notice issued to her. At the time, Zafar asked the court to issue a decree against the defendant with a Rs1 billion compensation for damages.