LAHORE: Announcing a reserved verdict, District and Sessions Judge Khalid Nawaz on Wednesday allowed an application by singer Meesha Shafi showing distrust on ajudge hearing a defamation suit filed by fellow singer and actor Ali Zafar against her and seeking transfer of the proceedings.

After allowing the application, the judge entrusted the proceedings to Additional District and Sessions Judge Amjad Ali Shah, who will resume hearing on May 11.

Ms Shafi through Advocate Farhad Ali Shah had contended that AD&SJ Shakeel Ahmad hearing the suit had been showing his bias against her and her legal team.

She said the judge had been unnecessarily annoyed with her legal team and also imposed a Kne on her lawyerfor not attending the proceedings. She also questioned the ñattering conduct of the judge towards the plaintiff`s witnesses during the cross examination.

Therefore, she asked the sessions judge to transfer the suit`s proceedings to some other judge in the best interest of justice.

Zaf ar`s legal team`s member Barrister Ambreen Qureshi said in a tweet, `The case has been transferred to the honourable Mr Amjad Ali Shah with our consent. We hope Ms Shañ ñnds no further excuses to delay the matter.

In his suit, Mr Zaf ar said that Ms Shafi through a tweet on April 19, 2008, leveled `baseless and unfounded` allegations of sexual harassment against him, which resulted in tarnishing his image in public, while his family had been facing agony and pain.

He said that Ms Shafi failed to delete the tweet and issue an apology based on the tweet within 14 days of a legal notice served on her.

He asked the court to issue a decree against Ms Shañ directing her to pay Rs1 billion in damages to him.