Reham Khan wins defamation case, pay-out, apology

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan's former wife Reham Khan has received substantial libel damages and a public apology from a private Pakistani television channel in connection with a programme that was broadcast in the UK in June 2018, in which the Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed accused her of getting money from the PML-N leader Shehbaz Sharif.

Justice Nicklin at the London High Court, in Royal Courts of Justice, was informed by Hamlins LLP's Alex Cochrane that the broadcast had made a number of very serious allegations about Reham Khan, including, quite wrongly, that she had colluded with her former husband's political rivals in the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and that she had accepted a substantial payment from or on behalf of its leader Sharif in return for writing her autobiography titled "Reham Khan", reports The News International.

He told the court on Wednesday: "Sheikh Rasheed called my client a woman of worst morals than a prostitute. An allegation that caused distress to my client and her family and damaged her reputation considerably."

The private channel informed the Court that it accepted that there was no truth to this allegation, or to any of the other allegations that she complained of.

Reham Khan was accused of taking money from opponents of the incumbent Pakistan government after she wrote her memoirs related to her one-year-long marriage to the Imran Khan.

Rasheed, actor Hamza Abbasi, Minister of Information and Broadcasting Fawad Chaudhry, PTI politician Fayyaz Hassan Chohan, and several anchors made the allegations on TV in June 2018.

Following the verdict, Reham Khan said: "I am glad that justice has finally prevailed... I have never received any kind of money from Shehbaz Sharif for writing my book... These allegations have put my life at risk and have repercussions for me for all my life. I hope that my victory and vindication serves as a catalyst for ethical journalism and honest politics in Pakistan.

"I see this as a win for all women in Pakistan who suffer character assassination by patriarchal society..."