12th November 2019

Reham Khan v Dunya TV: libel damages and public apology for our client

On 11 November 2019, we successfully concluded a libel claim for our client, Ms Reham Khan, which she brought in the High Court in London against Dunya TV, a 24-hour news and current affairs television channel which is broadcast in the UK online and on Sky channel 765.

Reham Khan is a British National of Pakistani origin.  She is a successful broadcasting journalist in her own right and she is also the ex-wife of Imran Khan, the current Prime Minster of Pakistan and well-known former international cricketer.

During the course of a broadcast called “On the Front with Kamran Shahid” on 5 June 2018, Mr Sheikh Rasheed, the current Federal Minister of Railways in Pakistan, made very serious allegations about our client, which were highly defamatory of her and entirely false.

The most serious allegation that he made was to claim that our client had colluded with her ex-husband’s political rivals, the Pakistan Muslim League, and accepted a substantial payment from or on behalf of its leader, Mr Shehbaz Sharif, in return for writing her autobiography. There is no truth to this allegation whatsoever, or any of the other allegations our client complained of, and they should never have been made in the first place.

As a result of the publication of the allegations, Reham instructed Hamlins LLP to seek redress on her behalf and to take legal action to vindicate her reputation.  Dunya TV has now made a full and unequivocal public apology to our client and it has accepted that she never received any payments from Mr Shehbaz Sharif or anyone in the Pakistan Muslim League for her book.

Dunya TV has also given an undertaking not to repeat these false allegations about our client and they have paid her substantial damages and all her legal costs. We are very happy with this successful outcome for Reham and that her reputation has now been fully vindicated.