Peshawar court rejects defamation suit against PM Imran Khan

PESHAWAR: A Peshawar court on Wednesday rejected a defamation plea against Prime Minister Imran Khan from a former KP lawmaker Meraj Humayun Khan, who was issued a show-cause notice from PTI for voting against party lines in 2018 Senate polls, ARY NEWS reported.

The lawmaker had filed a defamation lawsuit against the PTI chairman for claiming that she had voted against the party lines during the 2018 Senate elections.

The court in its decision said that the disciplinary body of PTI issued Meraj Humayun a show-cause notice to respond to allegations of selling her vote and she should have responded to it.

The inquiry committee has not yet decided on the matter and its report is awaited, nullifying the claim that she has been blamed for selling her vote.

In April 2018, the PTI expelled its 20 lawmakers of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly for allegedly selling votes in the Senate elections besides issuing show-cause notice to them to respond to it within 15 days.

On April 18, PTI chairman Imran Khan said that the party made several people successful, but there was no place for those who harmed the workers by selling off their vote.

Those who have been accused of horse-trading include Sardar Idrees, Zahid Durrani, Abdul Haq, Qurban Khan, Amjad Afridi, Arif Yousaf, Javed Nasim, Yasin Khalil, Faisal Zaman, Dina Naz, Nargis Ali, Nagina Khan, Obaid Mayar, Fouzia Bibi, Naseem Hayat, and Samiullah Alizai.

The members also include Meraj Humayun who joined the PTI from the Quami Watan Party, Khatoon Bibi, and Babar Saleem joining from the Awami Jamhoori Ittehad, and Wajih-uz-Zaman who joined from the PML-N.

The PTI chairman said that several names were received, who were involved in selling off their votes, however, the party wanted to reveal their names after thorough investigation.