PTI leader Ali Zaidi serves legal notice on Saleem Safi, seeks Rs300m in damages

 JournalismPakistan.com |  Published: 1 July 2017

Ali Zaidi has issued a legal notice to journalist Saleem Safi for defamatory remarks made in a newspaper article. He demands Rs300 million in damages and an apology.

Summary

ISLAMABAD – Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaaf leader Ali Haider Zaidi (pictured, left) has served a legal notice on journalist Saleem Safi (right) for leveling “false and libelous” allegations against him in a newspaper article.

Zaidi is seeking Rs300 million in damages for the article published in Jang.

The legal notice sent through Zaidi’s lawyers, demands the article be immediately retracted and Safi issue an unconditional apology.

The notice mentions the article titled ‘PTI, PPP or Muslim League Q.’ Safi wrote that under the politician’s leadership, an Iranian lobby had managed to convert PTI into an Iranian proxy. Such group has altered PTI’s stance to being pro-Iran and anti-Saudi Arabia/China.

“Neither Mr. Safi nor Jang have provided any evidence to substantiate their claims and appear to have conjured up such claims in a reckless attempt to create drama,” the notice says.

It mentions that Safi also appeared in DawnNews program News Eye on June 20 and “made slanderous remarks supporting the article written and claiming that his allegations were supported by various messages and videos. However, when asked to produce such evidence, Mr Safi failed to produce such evidence.”

Zaidi posted the legal notice on Twitter with the title: ‘Here is a copy of the legal notice to Saleem Safi! I’ll see you in court inshallah’.

Saleem Safi is with the Jang Group and hosts the program Jirga on Geo News.

KEY POINTS:

• Ali Zaidi serves legal notice to Saleem Safi.
• Zaidi seeks Rs300 million in damages for libelous article.
• Safi's claims link PTI to an Iranian lobby without evidence.
• The legal notice demands a retraction and apology from Safi.
• Zaidi publicly shared the legal notice on Twitter.