Ali Zafar and Meesha Shafi are Pakistani singers who had been colleagues and friends for several years. On 19 April 2018, Shafi publicly accused Zafar of sexual harassment. Zafar, as plaintiff, denied and subsequently filed a civil defamation suit against Shafi, as defendant. More women came in against Zafar and supported Shafi, highlighting the MeToo movement in Pakistan. Reported as a "high-profile" case, a trial court in Lahore ruled the defamation case in Zafar's favour after about eight years, on 31 March 2026; however, Shafi challenged the verdict in the Lahore High Court.
Meanwhile, other legal cases were also filed, including two defamation suits in counterclaim against Zafar; one by Shafi and the other by Leena Ghani. Furthermore, appeals were submitted by Shafi before the Supreme Court of Pakistan against dismissal of her workplace harassment complaint, and against the cybercrime complaint by Zafar with the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), which involves other persons with Shafi who had also voiced against Zafar; including Ghani, Iffat Omar, and Ali Gul Pir.
Background Ali Zafar and Meesha Shafi have known each other for several years, and both are graduates of the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore. They have together attended a number of private occasions and public entertainment events, including Zafar's wife's birthday party and the 15th Lux Style Awards, both in 2016. Besides sharing pictures together on social media, Shafi was also featured in the music videos for Zafar's songs "Chal Dil Mere" in 2003 and "Urain Ge" in 2015.
Both had individually endorsed some of the multinational brands in Pakistan, including Mobilink, Pepsi, and Lipton, and had also previously individually appeared in Coke Studio Pakistan episodes. Shafi was an advocate for a 2016 campaign by the UN Women Pakistan as well, while Zafar was preparing his film Teefa in Trouble. In 2017, Shafi was a judge at Pepsi Battle of the Bands, and Zafar was signed to join her in 2018.
Allegations On 19 April 2018, Shafi accused Zafar on Twitter of "sexual harassment of a physical nature" on "more than one occasion", and highlighted the MeToo movement. Zafar "categorically" denied the allegation and stated that he would take the matter to court rather than contest it on social media.
Journalist Hamna Zubair published Shafi's interview on Dawn Images minutes after her tweet. Two days later, another interview with Shafi was published in The News Instep Today in which she claimed because it is "easier" to tell "to move on", she was feeling more "difficult" to "stay silent". Zafar's interview was also published in The News the same day, in which he said that Shafi was his "family friend", and that the MeToo movement was used against him without any proof which would "tarnish" the country's image.
On 25 April, Zafar's legal team sent a notice to Shafi demanding an apology and removal of her accusations. However, on 12 May, Shafi's legal team issued a reply notice instead, asking Zafar for an apology for his "predatory behaviour". Zafar was represented by his father-in-law, Advocate Ali Sibtain Fazli.24 Digital (1 April 2026). . Retrieved 2 April 2026.
On a Geo News program, Zafar claimed that he was targeted using a "social media campaign" as well as "fake accounts" on social media, and the companies were called on to terminate his contracts thus to end his career. He claimed that he started a hashtag #FaceTheCourtMeeshaShafi after remaining silent for one year. On another Geo News program, Shafi claimed to have attempted a private resolution with Zafar's representatives and stated that she did not wish to work with him, but that Zafar insisted she visit him due to family ties. She claimed to have remained silent for four months before her tweet, and expressed her hope that a witness would eventually come forward.
Impact and reactions UN Women Pakistan voiced its support towards the MeToo movement without naming Shafi, though Shafi endorsed the statement. Soon afterwards, other women came forward in her support, and made statements against Zafar that they had also experienced harassment, including Leena Ghani, Humna Raza, and Maham Javaid. Shafi temporarily deactivated her social media handles following the cyberbullying and threats she was receiving. It was rumoured that she fled Canada, though she clarified she already became a permanent resident there in 2016.
Media outlets began reporting it as a "high-profile" case in Pakistan. M. A. Niazi of The Nation reviewed that seemingly Zafar was "Harvey Weinstein", however, Niazi did not "want to denigrate" Shafi. In May 2018, the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) issued a notice that journalist Orya Maqbool Jan had made derogatory remarks against Shafi while commenting on the movement.
Zafar had to step down from Pepsi Battle of the Bands, as the recording was originally scheduled to start just a day after Shafi's tweet. He was set to replace Atif Aslam from the previous season as a co-judge with Shafi and Fawad Khan, however, after a few days, Strings members Bilal Maqsood and Faisal Kapadia replaced him. Some personnel within the Pakistan Cricket Board and the Pakistan Super League also resisted playing Zafar's songs, despite popularity of his 2017 anthem, "Ab Khel Jamay Ga". In 2024, after a six-year gap, the PSL re-hired him for another anthem.
In July 2018, the promotional events and screening of Teefa in Trouble faced protests in Karachi and Lahore, and the activists called for a boycott of the film using slogans like "Boycott Ali Zafar", "Boycott Teefa in Trouble", and "Teefa is Trouble". Journalist Hamna Zubair again published an article on Dawn Images, claiming she was not invited to be at the event, yet she decided to visit. Dawn Images further reported that an internal conversation by employees at Patari led to remove the film's soundtrack from their website, and that they had falsely accused Zafar's team of demoting a song featuring Shafi's brother, Faris Shafi.
In April 2019, several artists withdrew their nominations for the 18th Lux Style Awards, including Shafi, who was nominated under the category of Best Song, and protested the nominations for Zafar's film including Best Film Actor. Consequently, the show's organizers stated that they respected both the decisions of the awards jury and the legal proceedings. Shafi also criticized the 2021 Hum Style Awards for having Zafar as host and called on it not to nominate her. In 2023, however, Shafi was awarded Most Stylish Musician at the 22nd Lux Style Awards, an event Zafar attended and performed at.
In 2019, a tweet and a subsequent diss track by Ali Gul Pir "Karley Jo Karna Hai" were interpreted as mocking Zafar by using wordplay on specific terms from his career, including "Channo", Teefa, "Rockstar", etc. Iffat Omar, who maintained her support for Shafi as a witness against Zafar despite having known both of their families, encountered Zafar in February 2023 on Twitter over claims of false reporting in media, and claimed that no foreign funding was involved.
In March 2021, VOA Urdu reported that Shafi's legal team denied the rumours that were spread by Indian media claiming Shafi was sentenced to three years' imprisonment; this happened after the British tabloid Daily Mail misquoted the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal. In December 2021, Shafi filed a defamation case in a UK High Court against a local television network, which, in a December 2020 program, had accused Shafi of not obeying the court orders in Zafar's defamation suit and used graphics to mock her. The court ruled in Shafi's favour in December 2023, finding the broadcast defamatory; however, in June 2025, the network issued an apology as part of a settlement outside court.
In June 2022, The Express Tribune reported that social media users in Pakistan compared the case of Zafar vs. Shafi with that of Depp v. Heard. While Zafar expressed his support towards Johnny Depp who had won the trial, Shafi however, shown her support for Amber Heard. Khadija Muzaffar wrote in The Friday Times that "what happened to Depp" was similar to the Zafar's case in view of "Pakistani men", and "if a woman is to retaliate", she is "deemed unworthy of being a victim" like Shafi. While Shafi claimed she had "felt silenced" when she had "the courage" to use her voice, in the aftermath of fighting the legal battle, Zafar maintained his stance with "innocent until proven guilty".
Legal proceedings
Cases by Ali Zafar
Zafar's defamation suit
June 2018 – September 2019: Zafar's examination On 23 June 2018, Ali Zafar filed a civil defamation suit of against Shafi under the Defamation Ordinance 2002, claiming that Shafi had caused injury to his "reputation, goodwill, livelihood" through what he called "false, slanderous and defamatory" allegations and a "malicious campaign". Zafar requested a restraining order; however, Shafi's legal team denied receiving it and claimed that Shafi was not yet summoned. On 24 January 2019, the court granted the restraining order, and forbade Shafi from making any negative statement towards him on any platform.
Rizwan Raees, a public relations company representative, testified that Zafar and Pepsi were individually being blackmailed by Shafi in 2018 to step away from each other, and at that time, she had only shared one incident of feeling harassment during a party at Zafar's in-laws in 2015. Contradictions were observed by Zafar's legal team in Shafi's claims when she had later accused Zafar of two incidents in an interview, and then of three incidents while filing her case; second incident in March 2016 at Zafar's wife's birthday party, and third incident in December 2017 at a jamming session at Zafar's studio. Upon inquiring about the 2015 incident, Zafar commented that Shafi continued to meet and that her husband had once worked with him afterwards. Upon showing his picture with Shafi from the March 2016 incident, Zafar argued that he thought she had no problem with putting a hand on her back for a photo, that she had posted the picture herself, and that he did not have the intention she alleged.
Earlier in April 2019, the court fined Shafi , stating that Shafi's legal team had not appeared and was observing further extension. They tried appealing to have permission to cross-examine the witnesses together instead of bringing them separately to avoid "undue favour to the plaintiff", which was rejected by the Lahore High Court but was later granted by the Supreme Court on 14 May 2019. By 30 May 2019, backing vocalists Aqsa Ali and Kinza Muneer, and musicians Asad Ahmed, Baqir Abbas, Joshua Keith, Kashif Chaman, Muhammad Ali, Muhammad Taqi, and Qaisar Zain, denied Shafi's allegation and testified as eyewitnesses from the December 2017 incident that Zafar and Shafi hugged and greeted each other but maintained a distance while performing. Zafar presented a video as evidence, and claimed that Shafi had originally enjoyed "jamming and performing" and appreciated his "kind words" through a WhatsApp message. Sara Rehman, a common friend, later testified as another eyewitness that Shafi met Zafar at a party in February 2018.
Reportedly, a criminal charge petition for document forgery in March 2019, and a contempt of court petition for violation of the restraining order in September 2019, were also filed against Shafi.
November 2019 – March 2026: Shafi's examination