Hina Rabbani Khar has said that she will file a defamation suit against Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry for falsely accusing her of power theft.
Ms Khar, who was elected on a reserved women’s seat from Punjab, said in a statement on Tuesday that the ruling PTI has adopted a strategy of character assassination against opposition members because it has failed to deliver since forming the government.
At a news conference after a cabinet meeting, Mr Chaudhry had alleged that some opposition members were involved in cases of power and gas theft. He specifically named Ms Khar and Sheikh Rohale Asghar from the PML-N.
Opposition members denounce minister’s latest allegations against PPP, PML-N leaders
The information minister claimed Ms Khan was involved in a power theft case and had obtained a court stay to prevent action against her for two years.
In her statement, Ms Khar warned the minister to desist from making false allegations against opposition members and suggested that he think before making statements.
The information minister recently wrote to Chief Justice of Pakistan Asif Saeed Khosa inviting his attention towards the lack of implementation of defamation laws and asked him to take this up at the next meeting of the National Judicial Policy Making Committee.
In his letter, Mr Chaudhry had this a “matter of great public importance” which, according to him, required urgent attention. He said that “unfortunately”, existing laws related to defamation, liber and tort had not been implemented the way they should be, creating obstacles in the accountability of a offenders, “a vast majority of whom have failed to meet the justice they deserved.”
