Retired senior Pakistan military officer Brigadier (retired) Rashid Nasir made a personal appearance at the UK High Court on Wednesday in his defamation case against the youtuber Major (retired) Adil Raja.
The half day hearing was listed before Master Davison to determine three applications, ahead of the full trial that will take place in July this year.
The court ordered once again that he must pay Rashid Naseer’s legal costs. He was ordered to pay £6,100 in legal costs in addition to having already paid £23,000 to Rashid Naseer’s lawyers.
According to details there were three applications the court was asked to deal with today.
The first application was an application by Adil Raja seeking a remote trial for himself and all his witnesses who are Shaheen Sehbai, Colonel (retired) Akbar Hussain and Mirza Shahzad Akbar. Rashid Naseer had no principled objection to this application but challenged the veracity of the evidence presented. The Judge was confused why an application was made for Sehbai and Akbar as the courts routinely allow evidence to be given from the US due to convenience and cost.
As for Shahzad Akbar and Adil Raja the Judge refused to listen to the application and said that it should be dealt with by the trial judge at the pre-trial review hearing.
The second application dealt with today was Adil Raja’s application for anonymity for an anonymous witness he alleged was in the army but who refused to be a witness for him.
Adil Raja wanted the costs of this application to be paid by Rashid Naseer. Rashid Naseer’s position from the outset was that he had no principled objection to an application for anonymity but that any costs of the application should be costs in the case but because Adil Raja had withdrawn the application he should pay now and not at the end of the case. The Judge said he was going to leave costs to the end of the case.
The third application the Judge dealt with was Rashid Naseer’s application for an unless and debarring order as Adil Raja had not paid previous costs ordered by the court (total £23,000 which Adil Raja paid within a few months of the application being made). Even though Adil Raja had paid the costs ordered previously, Rashid Naseer wanted Adil Raja to pay the legal costs he had incurred making the application. Adil Raja’s lawyers objected but the Judge agreed with Rashid Naseer’s lawyers and ordered that Adil Raja must pay £6,100 to Rashid Naseer within 14 days.
In addition to the above Adil Raja made a statement in these proceedings that he was going to serve a summons on a Pakistani journalist living in London but when asked about this, his barrister said that was not the case and it was just a suggestion.
In a statement of costs Adil Raja’s solicitors confirmed that they act on a conditional fee agreement and are not being paid for any work done. They wrote: “Our firm is conducting this case on a CFA basis. If D is able to recover his costs then our firm will be paid, otherwise D will not have to pay”.
