ISLAMABAD: A district and sessions court has accepted a defamation suit filed by Federal Minister for Planning and Development Ahsan Iqbal against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Murad Saeed and ordered the latter to pay Rs2.5 million in damages.
Additional Sessions Judge Hakim Khan, in his 19-page verdict, ruled that the corruption allegations levelled by the PTI leader against Ahsan Iqbal were not substantiated and directed Murad Saeed to pay Rs2.5 million as compensation for defaming the federal minister.
The verdict states that the PTI leader failed to prove his allegations that Ahsan Iqbal had received Rs70 billion in illegal commissions through corruption. The judgment says that Iqbal contended Murad Saeed had publicly accused him of receiving Rs70 billion as an illegal commission and of committing corruption in connection with the Multan-Sukkur Motorway Project. Such allegations, made by then serving federal minister during a widely covered press conference and extensively reported in the media, were capable of causing serious damage to his integrity, political standing, and personal dignity, the court observed.
The judgment further states that the court attached considerable significance to the nature of the allegations. The defendant did not merely criticize government policies or administrative decisions but directly accused the plaintiff of corruption, abuse of authority, and receiving illegal commissions amounting to Rs70 billion. Such imputations strike at the core of a person’s honesty, integrity, and moral character and are inherently defamatory, it said. Since the defendant failed to establish the truth of these allegations or provide any lawful justification for making them, the natural and probable consequence was injury to the plaintiff’s reputation.
The court ruled that the controversial statements created a negative public perception of the federal minister and amounted to a direct attack on his character and credibility.
The court also noted that Murad Saeed neither appeared before the court nor produced any evidence to support his claims.
The verdict states that although the plaintiff claimed Rs10 billion in damages, the court was required to award compensation that was fair, reasonable, and proportionate to the injury proved.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2026
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