ISLAMABAD, December 16: Federal Minister for Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry said on Thursday that the government was going to file a defamation suit against Justice (r) Wajihuddin Ahmed for lying that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) leader Jahangir Khan Tareen had paid the expenses incurred on Prime Minister Imran Khan’s Bani Gala residence.
Addressing a press conference in Islamabad, Fawad said, “Even Tareen has now come up with a denial of Wajih’s statement. Now there should be an end to the character assassination of people, the minister added.
Calling Wajih a ‘joker’ again, the information minister said he saluted Jahangir Tareen for telling the nation the truth and thus setting the record straight. He regretted that what to speak of an ordinary person, here in Pakistan even the prime minister was not safe from defamation.
“Personal issues related to PM Imran Khan were discussed on the TV and Najam Sethi carried out a program targetting the premier. The allegations of bearing Bani Gala’s household expenses by
Jahangir Tareen have been strongly turned down by the PTI stalwart,” he said.
“JKT has rebutted Justice retired Wajihuddin allegations,” he said. He recalled that one political expert had said on a TV channel that the prime minister had divorced his wife Bushra Bibi, which eventually turned out to be a ‘lie’.
Fawad said that was why the government had floated the idea of the Pakistan Media Development Authority bill so that there should be limits to the right to freedom of expression. Referring to Justice (r) Wajih, he deplored that it was a pity that a man whom the prime minister had favoured had lied that somebody else was meeting the expenses of his residence.
“Character assassination of politicians, judges, army generals and others has become a routine now,” Fawad said, adding the same could not be tolerated in the West where these very TV channels were fined for their indulgence in such practices.
Chaudhry said apart from filing a defamation case against Justice retired Wajihuddin Ahmed, the media houses which aired his statement without confirmation are also being served notices.
Earlier, Justice Retired Wajihuddin Ahmed had alleged in a private news channel program that Jahangir Tareen had given Rs3 million on a monthly basis to Imran Khan for household expenses which were later hiked to Rs5 million per month. -TLTP
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