An additional sessions court in Islamabad on Saturday ruled in favour of Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal in a defamation suit against former federal minister Murad Saeed, ordering the latter to pay Rs2.5 million in damages.

Judge Hakim Khan announced the verdict, holding that Saeed had failed to substantiate allegations that the federal minister was involved in corruption worth Rs70 billion.

According to the judgment, the allegations of corruption, abuse of authority and receiving illegal commissions levelled against Iqbal constituted defamation.

Read: Verdict delayedin Iqbal’s defamation case

The court observed that the disputed statement had damaged Iqbal’s reputation, honour and dignity and had created a negative impression of him among the public. It further held that the allegations amounted to a direct attack on his integrity, character and reputation.

The judgment noted that Saeed neither appeared before the court nor produced any evidence in support of his allegations.

The PML-N leader had sought Rs10 billion in damages in the defamation suit. However, the court ruled that the amount claimed was excessive in light of the evidence and instead awarded Rs2.5 million in compensation.

The case stemmed from a 2019 press conference in which Saeed, then serving as a federal minister, accused Iqbal of corruption in the Multan-Sukkur Motorway project.

Addressing the press conference, the PTI leader alleged that Iqbal had used his influence as a federal minister to award the Multan-Sukkur Motorway project to a specific company and had received Rs70bn in kickbacks through his alleged front man, Javed Sadiq.

Also Read: Ahsan Iqbal serves Rs10b defamation notice to Murad

Iqbal served a legal notice through his senior counsel, Advocate Azam Nazeer Tarar, accusing the then federal minister of damaging not only his client’s reputation but also that of key projects such as the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which, he said, was a national asset and a symbol of the brotherly relations between Pakistan and China.

The counsel demanded that the PTI leader retract the defamatory statements made against the PML-N leader, tender an unconditional apology and refrain from making such allegations in the future.