FIA asks trial court to start proceedings against Meesha Shafi, others over 'smear campaign'

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has asked a trial court to initiate proceedings against singer, actor and model Meesha Shafi and eight others for allegedly being involved in a vilification campaign targeting Ali Zafar. 

The Teefa in Trouble star had filed a complaint with the FIA Lahore’s cybercrime wing in November 2018 claiming that certain accounts were posting "threats and defamatory material" against him. The complaint was filed a few months after Shafi alleged on social media that Zafar had sexually harassed her more than once. 

According to Dawn, the FIA's cybercrime wing Lahore submitted an interim challan before the court of a special judge in the FIR registered on Zafar’s complaint. The challan stated that Shafi and eight others nominated in the case "have been found guilty in this case as per available oral and documentary evidences".

According to the FIA, Shafi could not present witnesses before the court that would back her allegations against Zafar, thereby making her statement against him 'defamatory' and ‘false.’

Zafar had alleged that several fake accounts were created as part of a smear campaign against him, adding that they were linked to Shafi.

“A twitter account @nehasaigol1, which posted 3,000 defamatory tweets against me and my family only in one year, [was] created 50 days before Meesha’s allegations of sexual harassment,” he had told the FIA .