SHC declares Thatta court proceedings in defamation case against Shabbar Zaidi null and void

The Sindh High Court (SHC) has declared the proceedings of a subordinate court in Thatta in a defamation case against former FBR chairman Shabbar Zaidi and others as illegal and without lawful authority.

In its ruling, Justice Hassan Akbar observed that the Additional Sessions Judge Thatta did not have the jurisdiction to hear the case. The court noted that the subordinate court had exercised its authority without legal justification on what was termed a baseless complaint.

According to the petitioner’s counsel, the case violated established legal principles under the Criminal Procedure Code, which require that a matter be tried in the jurisdiction where the alleged offence was committed.

The SHC further ruled that merely reading or becoming aware of allegedly defamatory material in a particular location does not constitute an essential element of the offence. It observed that the material in question was part of an application filed before the Sindh High Court in Karachi and was neither published nor circulated in Thatta.

The court held that the complaint filed in Thatta did not meet the legal requirements for a defamation case, noting that the offence is only complete when the material is communicated to a third party.

The Thatta sessions court had earlier issued bailable warrants for Zaidi and co-accused Omar Muhammad, Ali Ahsan, and Fahad Khan on a direct complaint filed by plaintiff Asad Rizvi.