Overview
- A three-judge bench led by Justice Ayesha Malik stayed the lower-court proceedings and issued a notice to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to file a reply.
- The Supreme Court said the matter would be fixed for an early hearing after receiving the prime minister’s response.
- The underlying suit seeks Rs10 billion over Imran Khan’s 2017 televised claim that Shehbaz Sharif offered him Rs10 billion to drop the Panama Papers case.
- The trial court had struck off Khan’s defense and begun recording witness testimony in his absence despite acknowledging his injuries on earlier dates.
- Khan’s counsel argued his nonappearance stemmed from a leg wound in a November 2022 shooting, and the bench questioned how the defense was terminated given that context.