A local court in Islamabad is set to take up the case on December 7.
Khurram Shahzad, a former air force official and now a commercial pilot, had married Muniba Mazari in December 2005. She divorced him in 2015. The couple had a car accident near Jacobabad on February 27, 2008, in which Mazari lost both her legs.
Shahzad maintains that he tried to promote Mazari’s paintings in an effort to nurse her back to normalcy. After she started interacting with foreigners in Islamabad’s diplomatic circles, he said, she developed an interest in modelling and singing. However, Shahzad maintained that this was against his family’s values.
“Similarly, being an esteemed officer of defence forces, the plaintiff could not allow the defendant (Muniba Mazari) to continue such practices,” Shahzad maintained in his petition. He further added that Muniba Mazari left his house of her free will in 2014 and filed for divorce the next year.
Muniba Mazari, who is also a UN Women Goodwill Ambassador in Pakistan, gained popularity after regularly appearing on national TV.
Shahzad claims that she misquoted statements and made him seem like the bad one - he specifically quoted a TedTalk Mazari gave in 2015 where she said that “Six and a half years back I met a car accident. I was travelling from Quetta to my hometown in Rahim Yar Khan. The ‘driver’ slept and the car fell into a ditch.”
However, Shahzad denied this and said that it was her who was sleeping at the time while he was behind the wheel.
In another show Mazari voiced that her married life changed as well after the accident. She also pointed out how it was not a happy marriage and during that accident either and that he jumped out and saved himself but she stayed in the car and sustained several injuries.
“The words ‘He managed to jump out and saved himself’ used for the plaintiff are extremely painful and unbearable for the plaintiff and his family,” read the petition.
“By showing plaintiff very cruel and selfish person, the defendant [Mazari] is seeking attention and sympathy and eventually high rating through national and international media,” he added.
Shahzad, who is now remarried and has a new-born says his family is also deeply saddened by such claims.
In return, he has demanded Rs10 million and has also asked the court to restrain Mazari from distorting facts about him in the future as well.
Shahzad has also urged the court to direct the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) to bar Mazari from issuing defamatory remarks against him on television and has also asked for the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority to delete all of Mazari’s ‘defamatory’ and ‘libelous’ remarks against him on the internet.
And this is what Mazari had to say,