Islamabad, Dec 10 (TruthDive): A Pakistani high court yesterday rejected a lawyer’s petition asking it to direct authorities to file charges against model and actress Veena Malik, following allegedly nude photographs of her appearing on the cover of FHM India’s December issue and confiscate her passport.
Salimullah Khan had filed the petition against Malik in the Islamabad High Court the day before yesterday, noting that she should be tried under provisions of the Pakistan Penal Code for obscene acts, sedition, defamation and not wearing clothes and using equipment used by Pakistani military personnel.
Khan also asked the court to confiscate her passport and order her to return to Pakistan. Malik’s passport is “state property” and the government could confiscate it under the law, he claimed.
Rejecting his petition yesterday, the court said it could not take any action as the photos had been published in another country.
Khan contended that Malik’s conduct was “controversial and shameful for everybody in Pakistan” and that she had trampled “all standards of Islamic cultures and morality”.
“She is carrying an inscription on her arm, that is ISI in bold letters, and she is also proclaimed as a weapon of mass destruction by the magazine. Thus she has defamed the country and its institutions,” Khan told.
The nude picture was printed on the cover of the magazine and other photos were featured on the e-edition of FHM India. In the magazine’s cover image, Ms Malik is shown wearing no clothing, but with her arms and legs discreetly positioned to keep her covered. She has the letters ISI stencilled on her arm, representing Pakistan’s powerful spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence agency.
Malik has denied doing a nude photo shoot for the magazine, saying the pictures were ‘morphed’. She has filed a case for defamation against the magazine.
FHM India has said it has video and emails from Malik that prove the authenticity of the pictures. The actress and the magazine have threatened to take legal action against each other.