From a no-show from singer Meesha Shafi on multiple occasions to none of her alleged witnesses appearing during hearings and submitting their testimonies, the starlet’s longstanding legal feud with singer-actor Ali Zafar has lingered on in the courts for a long time. This past weekend, however saw some progress in the case, with former supermodel Iffat Omar, a witness of Shafi in her sexual harassment accusations against Zafar, appearing before the court for her interrogation. She had recorder her testimony in the case last year. Additional District and Sessions Judge Imtiaz Ahmad administered the cross-examination.
Answering the questions of Advocate Umar Gill, Zafar’s counsel, Omar said her first work with Shafi’s mother Saba Hameed for PTV drama, Nangay Paoon in 1993. The counsel showed a video clip of Omar’s interview in which she claimed to have hugged senior actor Rahat Kazmi repeatedly during the shoot of a drama serial because she had a crush on him. Responding to this, Omar termed her statement a joke. To another question, Omar said she could not recall correctly whether Zafar lodged a complaint with the FIA against her before or after her testimony in the suit. The judge had to stop the cross-examination as Omar said she was feeling faint. She was instantly given water and a chair to sit down.
The proceedings started once again following a half-an-hour break. Later, the judge deferred the hearing until December 19. While Omar recorded her testimony in the case last year, her cross-examination is still pending. At the time, she had told the court that Hameed and her daughter Shafi enjoyed a good reputation in the industry and were highly respected, adding that she could never imagine that they would ever lie. In his defamation suit filed against Shafi, Zafar noted that she had posed baseless allegations of sexual harassment against him, which had caused a great amount of distress, agony and pain to him, his wife and children. He said Shafi failed to delete her tweet or issue an apology within 14 days of a legal notice served on her. Zafar asked the court to issue a decree against the defendant and demanded Rs1 billion as compensation for tarnishing his reputation.
