By Meerum Awan.
A year after Meesha Shafi filed an appeal in the defamation case by Ali Zafar, the Supreme Court is due to hear Meesha’s appeal tomorrow.
Meesha Shafi, who had accused Ali Zafar of sexual harrassment said: “If ruled in my favour, this will be a landmark judgment in the history of Pakistan, determining those that are self-employed, as having the same rights to complain and seek justice as any other.”
Women’s Action Forum has also released a statement regarding the matter and the impact it holds for workplace harassment laws.
Earlier in a statement released by WAF, curtains were brought down on the misinformation being spread on social media about the case. Mainly due to Ali Zafar’s outright claims of success in court.
International newspaper, The Guardian also reached out to Ali Zafar to get a statement for an article. This is how his team responded upon being contacted by Hannah Elis Peterson.
The actor has also claimed on multiple occasions that he has won the case.
However, as is evident now, a verdict is yet to be reached and Ali Zafar has not won the case.
The apeal filed by Meesha Shafi has been pending in court for a year now
During which, Ali Zafar has been vigorously chanting about his win in court even though a verdict is yet to be reached.
Supreme Court’s verdict is greatly anticipated in the female activist community and many are hoping that a revolution might be under way in regards to workplace harassment laws. But it all depends on SC’s ruling.
Here’s a timeline for those who thought Ali Zafar had won the case
Meesha tweets on 19 April, 2019
Ali Zafar denies all allegations later the same day
Actors come out in support and some eight more from the industry accused him of sexual harassment including Leena Ghani, Humna Raza, Maham Javaid and Iffat Omer.
Just a few days later on April 25th, Meesha’s legal counsel receive a notice by Ali Zafar’s lawyers asking her to withdraw her claims against him from social media and deliver an apology. Failing to do this will earn them a 100crore defamation suit against Meesha Shafi and the other women who made similar allegations.
On May 12, Meesha legal team dismiss all the contents of the legal notice sent by Ali Zafar saying they are ‘legally and factually incorrect’ and asked Zafar yet again to issue an apology.
In Nov, Ali Zafar launched a complaint in FIA. The investigation went on for two years and concluded that Meesha Shafi, Iffat Omer and seven others ran a vilification campaign against ali Zafar.
According to the FIA, Meesha did appear before the cybercrime wing Lahore wing but did not produce any evidence.
It should be noted that Ali Zafar had filed a defamation suit in SC and Meesha had also filed an appeal in the SC.
Despite Ali Zafar claiming on multiple occasions that he has ‘won’ the case, the appeal is still pending in the SC and is due to be heard tomorrow.
