Shaheer Ahmed
In the same manner as Kubra Khan, actor Mehwish Hayat has filed a lawsuit against YouTuber Adil Raja for posting defamatory material online. The actor had first requested that the FIA’s Cyber Crime Wing look into the situation, but after receiving no response, she requested help from the Sindh High Court (SHC).
Mehwish Hayat submitted a petition to the SHC stating that the actor from London’s Nahi Jaunga is “upset by a social media storm generated and precipitating due to certain videos made by an individual by the name Adil Farooq Raja who claims to be a self-described “geopolitical analyst” and “rights activist” and who maintains a YouTube channel and Twitter handle by the name Soldier Speaks.”
She claimed in her appeal that when the livestream aired, a number of social media users on Twitter and Instagram began superimposing images of Hayat and other performers whose initials Raja had uttered. She claimed that Raja used Hayat’s initials M and H to spell out his name in the video and that “some social media users initiated a social media campaign on such a video aired by Mr. Raja with a purpose to disparage state institutions and to harm the reputation of the petitioner.”
Other Twitter accounts besides Raja’s have been identified in the petition for “propagating” the video and its “malicious content,” which defames both Hayat and the government institutions.
The SHC gave the FIA and PTA two-week notice about the defamation complaint and ordered them to erase the content that disparages Mehwish Hayat. Speaking to the reporters outside of the court, Hayat expressed her hope that those who had slandered her would be held accountable.
