Islamabad: A Pakistani court on Thursday rejected a
lawyer`s petition asking it to direct authorities to file
charges of obscenity and sedition against actress Veena Malik
and confiscate her passport over a controversy around her nude
pictures in an Indian magazine.
Salimullah Khan had filed the petition against Malik in
the Islamabad High Court yesterday.
He contended that she should be tried under provisions of
the Pakistan Penal Code for obscene acts, sedition, defamation
and wearing clothes and using equipment used by Pakistani
military personnel.
Rejecting his petition today, the court said it could not
take any action as the photos had been published in another
country.
Khan had earlier told the court that Malik did a naked
photo shoot for FHM India magazine.
The nude picture was printed on the cover of the magazine
and other photos were featured on the e-edition of FHM India,
he said.
Malik has denied doing a nude photo shoot for the
magazine, saying the pictures were "morphed".
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.
The photos feature Malik with the letters ISI the
abbreviation for Pakistan`s Inter-Services Intelligence agency
painted on her arm.
Khan contended in his petition 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 News daily.
He asked the court to order Malik to come back to
Pakistan, and to direct authorities to confiscate her
passport.
Malik`s passport is "state property" and the government
could confiscate it under the law, he claimed.
PTI
