In a rare social media interaction, Meesha Shafi slammed those criticising director Jami and the #MeToo movement in Pakistan.
Taking to Twitter, Meesha said that she feels sorry for those who will believe everything except the victim and extended her support for Jami, who in an explosive social media post Sunday night revealed that he had been raped by a powerful media magnate.
Meesha also addressed her own harassment case and explained why her petition was rejected by the Lahore High Court.
A childhood friend of singer Meesha Shafi, who recorded her statement before a sessions court in the one billion defamation suit filed by singer/actor Ali Zafar, testified in favour of the plaintiff and refuted the allegations of sexual harassment against him.
According to details, Sara Razee in her oral and written statement said that she has known Meesha since Grade 7 and Ali for almost 20 years. The witness said that she was present on both occasions where the alleged incidents of harassment took place and did not notice any odd behaviour by both the parties.
Sara said that that on the occasion of Ali’s wife Ayesha Fazli’s birthday, she “didn’t notice anything out of order. Meesha was very normal with Ali Zafar and in fact she was sitting at his piano.”
Talking about the other incident, which was Hassan Sheheryar Yaseen’s (HSY) party in February 2018, Sara said she met both the parties that night and Meesha was very excited to meet Ali.
“I did not notice any reservation on Meesha’s part towards Ali,” she added.
Two more prosecution witnesses were also present in the court, however, their testimonies were not recorded as Meesha’s senior counsel from the legal team was not available. As per her Instagram, Meesha is currently in Canada while Zafar is doing a series of concerts in the United States.
The hearing has been adjourned for September 8 when Razee will also be cross-examined by the defendant’s side.
So far, 13 witnesses have testified in favour of Zafar, including three women and Meesha’s former manager Rizwan.
Barrister Hassaan Niazi, who represented stabbing victim Khadija Siddiqui in court, has called out activist Nighat Dad’s “fraud” over the latter’s claims regarding her role in bringing the culprit to justice.
Now a barrister and then law student Khadija was attacked by her class fellow Shah Hussain on May 3, 2016, near Shimla Hill where she, along with her driver, had gone to pick her younger sister from school.
Dad, a lawyer and activist who runs the not-for-profit organisation Digital Rights Foundation, had on Monday claimed to have “advised Siddiqui on how to spread the word on her case”.
“Khadija Siddiqui initially lost her case in the lower courts because the father of the attacker was the president of the Lahore Bar and they pressured the judges. But Khadija appealed to the Supreme Court. She reached out to me for advice on how to use the internet to spread the word about the case,” she had claimed in an interview to Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
“When cases are pending in courts, you are not allowed to talk publicly about them. But Khadija was like, ‘I’m not going to stop, because I know that technology has so much power and I can reach out to millions of people and get support’. And that’s when we decided that we are not going to obey the court orders.”
Dad went on to claim that she “designed a strategy for social media” and Khadija started tagging people, making short videos, showing her wounds. “On Twitter and Facebook, she got support not only from women’s groups, but also political parties and leaders. And that’s why Khadija won the case,” she said.
It wasn’t later that Niazi, who represented Khadija in the case along with Barrister Salman Safdar and other lawyers, took to Twitter to call out Dad over her claims.
“Nigat Dad this is not even a lie, but a fraud. YOU DID NOT DO ANYTHING FOR KHADIJA,” he wrote while also sharing screengrabs of Nighat’s claims from the interview.
Niazi also accused Dad of “misusing the #MeToo movement for foreign funds and advised actor Meesha Shafi, who is being represented by Dad in her sexual harassment case against musician Ali Zafar, “to change her lawyer”.
The tweet was followed by that of Khadija, who seemed to support Niazi’s statement.
“I have been misquoted completely. I request CFR to please clarify, Barrister Hassaan Niazi was solely responsible for media and social media,” she wrote while also “disagreeing to the facts stated in the article”.
‘THERE’S BEEN A MISUNDERSTANDING’:
Responding to the allegations, Dad said that there had been a misunderstanding.
“It appears there is a misunderstanding. The interview was a longer conversation and like any interview, answers were condensed for length. Supported you all along in your fight, never took credit for your legal or SM team’s work & continue to respect their efforts,” she tweeted.
In a subsequent tweet, she wrote:
The excerpts, highlighted by Khadija’s legal team, have been removed from the interview.
Despite all the shor sharaba and nominations withdrawl from the 18th Lux Style Awards, Ali Zafar won the award for Best Actor Viewers Choice for his role in Teefa in Trouble.
In case you missed it, several members of the Pakistan entertainment industry withdrew their nominations in solidarity with Meesha Shafi and because they did not want to share the platform with an “alleged harasser”. Among those who withdrew their nominations were model Eman Suleman, hair and makeup artist Saima Bargfrede, The Sketches, and Faris Shafi.
Those who withdrew their nominations also boycotted the event, including Meesha. While Ali Zafar also did not attend the event, he took home an award and that too for Best Actor Viewers Choice.
While Ali took to Twitter to thank his fans for supporting him, Meesha thanked all those who supported her in this time.
Meesha also decided that it was a good time to share her two cents on all the controversy surrounding Ali’s defamation case and all the conspiracy theories that have been circulating on social media.
She also took a jibe at all those who are saying that her case is being ‘foreign-funded.’
Meesha also “saluted” her legal team for their unending support.
Meesha signed off by asking women to stand up and work towards change.
In the latest turn of events, Meesha Shafi on Saturday filed an application of no confidence in the judge who is hearing the defamation case filed by Ali Zafar. Additional session judge Shakeel Ahmed is hearing the defamation case for the past six months.
Meesha in her petition said that she has no confidence in the judge hearing the defamation case against her and has claimed that the judge is biased, adding that he reprimanded her lawyers for no reason. She requested the case to be transferred to another court.
Her petition read, “Judge Ahmad has shown a clear and obvious bias in favour of the plaintiff which is apparent from the mode and manner in which he has so far conducted the proceedings.”
Meesha’s lawyers said that they felt the bias from the first day but their intuition was confirmed by the judge’s conduct during the cross examination of the first witness of the plaintiff.
The sessions judge will now hear Meesha’s plea seeking a new judge.
Meanwhile, Meesha’s lawyers have also filed a separate petition in the Supreme Court appealing that the court was “not giving a right to a fair trial to Meesha.” The hearing for the case has been scheduled for May 9. Meesha’s lawyer, Nighat Dad said that the trial court had not permitted delaying the cross-examination of witnesses and that sufficient time was needed to cross-examine the witnesses.
Meesha Shafi and Ali Zafar’s legal battle does not seem to be easing up anytime soon.
On Wednesday, Meesha’s lawyer, Nighat Dad, in a tweet shared that Ali Zafar has been served a defamation notice for his comments he made to various media channels regarding his ongoing feud with Shafi.
The legal notice read, “In a statement aired on Hum News on 27th April 2019 (a link of which you have posted on your Twitter account also) you falsely claimed and published that our client is lying and has made false sexual harassment allegations against you just to get fame and recognition so as to get Canadian immigration. In addition to the same, you have also claimed that our client wants to become Malala, thereby implying that Malala also fabricated a false story like Meesha just to gain international recognition and immigration of a foreign country.”
It added, “You have also knowingly and falsely claimed/published that our client’s case against you has been dismissed by the ombudsperson against sexual harassment and that you have been exonerated from all charges of sexual harassment.”
The notice asks Zafar to tender a public apology within 15 days and pay Rs200 crore in “compensation for the loss and damage to our client’s reputation.”
In case you are still confused about the case(s), watch our explainer videos below:
The Lux Style Awards have been embroiled in controversy from the minute the nominations were announced. In the beginning, most people had issues over the fact that a lot of deserving people were not included in the nominations. For example, Hamza Ali Abbasi for Parwaaz Hai Junoon and Mohsin Abbas Haider for Meri Guriya.
Fast forward a few weeks the LSAs further landed in hot waters for nominating an alleged harasser.
Model Eman Suleman was the first to withdraw her name from the nominations. Eman, who was nominated for the Best Emerging Talent in the Fashion category, in a short video posted to Instagram, said that though she felt honoured to be nominated, she did “not wish to be part of an accolade that is shared with an alleged harasser.”
Following Eman Suleman, Generation (Achievement in Fashion Design – Pret) and Saima Bargefrede (Best Hair and Makeup Artist) rejected their nominations.
An official statement read, “The two entities have decided to follow Eman Suleman’s footsteps and not attend this year’s ceremony,” adding, “The two brands stand with women who face and fight toxic misogyny, sexism, and sexual harassment in multiple ways in pursuance of their dreams and indeed in their daily lives.”
A few hours later, Meesha Shafi thanked Eman, Generation and Saima for standing up for her and requested for her name and work be removed from the list of nominees. Her song Mein was nominated for the Best Song.
The Sketches, Fatima Nasir and Rubab Ali followed the same path and withdrew their nominations.
The Sufi folk rock band which was nominated in four categories (Best Song, Best Playback Singer, Best Original Soundtrack and Singer Of The Year) said that their reason was based on their values and principles which they will not bend for any award.
Meanwhile, Fatima Nasir nominated for Best Hair and Makeup, also rejected her nomination saying that she stands in solidarity with those who have withdrawn from the awards and that “we need to keep raising our voice against sexual harassment until the industry, and the world, is a safe place for women to work.”
Model Rubbab Ali, nominated for the Best Female Model of the Year, said that she’s sick of casual harassment against women which is why she is supporting those who are raising their voice.
Last but not the least, director Jami threw out the three LSA Awards he’s won on the street outside his house and said that “We stand by our women.”
Following this wave of rejections, Lux issued an official statement saying that “the decisions of the Film Jury were based on an assessment of the merits of the cinematic work,” adding “We do not consider any other extraneous issues related to the personal characters or actions of people associated with that work.”
The statement further said, “The Film Jury of the Lux Style Awards appreciates the sensitivity of the subject and recognises the intensity of public sentiment. Nevertheless, it is also important to respect that the case is being decided by Pakistan’s judicial system. We have complete faith in the law of the land and believe that justice will prevail.”
While most people have been calling out the LSAs for their neutral stance, some members of the fraternity came forward and defended the awards.
Ahmed Ali Butt, who has been nominated for the Best Actor for his role in Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 2, said that an award is a token of appreciation from your fellow peers.
“To degrade an award and treat it like a piece of garbage is truly sad and uncivilized. This means you have no regard for the art and your fellow peers who gave you the title,” he further said, adding that there are better ways to protest.
Model Iman Aly said that the protest was a childish step.
“Fame and respect should be earned with hard work in time. Not by childish walkouts and social media posts playing judge, jury and executioner,” she wrote on her Instagram.
Shamoon Abbasi also took a dig at Jami for throwing out his award saying, “You don’t disrespect your awards for public attention for a matter that has been resolved.”