PM plea against defamation suit adjourned.

PESHAWAR -- A single-member Peshawar High Court bench has adjourned the hearing into a petition of Prime Minister Imran Khan seeking dismissal of a defamation suit filed against him by former MPA Fauzia Bibi over the horse-trading charge.

Justice Mohammad Nasir Mahfooz observed that hearing into the premier`s civil revision petition on the next date would be subject to any legal and valid objection from the other side.

After the petition was filed in Jan, the high court`s office had objected that Mr Imran`s affidavit didn`t accompany the petition, which was mandatory underthe law.

In March, the high court had allowed time to deputy attorney general Mohammad Habib Qureshi, who represented Mr Imran, to address the objection raised by the office before Apr 13.

However, the affidavit has so farnotbeenproduced.

Through the civil revision petition, Mr Imran has challenged an order of an additional district and sessions judge, who had on Dec 14, 2019, rejected his plea to dismiss the defamation suit saying it is not maintainable.

The petitioner requested the court to set aside the order of the additional district and sessions judge and reject the plaint of Ms Fauzia.

Ms Fauzia`s counsel, Syed Ghufranullah Shah, told Dawn thatthehighcourthad sofarnot issued any notice to his client and once that happened, he would raise objection about nonfiling of affidavit by the peti-tioner.

ADSJ Abdul Majid had reserved order over an application of Mr Imran on June 15, 2019, after the completion of arguments by both parties and had finally pronounced it on Dec 14, 2019.

In the application filed under Order VII Rule 11 of Code of Civil Procedure, Mr Imran had requested the court to reject the suit saying it is...