Filmmaker Jamshed Mehmood Raza, widely known as Jami, has been granted interim bail by the Sindh High Court, two days after a Karachi sessions court sentenced him to two years in jail for defamation. The conviction was related to a 2019 incident involving an anonymous letter read by Jami at a public event, which the complainant, fellow director Sohail Javed, claimed was aimed at him.
Jami was taken to Karachi Central Jail following Tuesday’s conviction, but his legal team filed an appeal against the ruling, arguing the lower court had “wrongly shifted the burden of proof” onto the accused. The appeal also maintained that the prosecution’s evidence was contradictory and failed to meet the threshold of proof required for a criminal conviction.
The defamation case stems from the Lahooti Melo festival in 2019, where Jami read out a letter from an anonymous sexual assault survivor. While the letter did not name anyone, it included descriptive details that viewers of Jami’s Facebook livestream used to speculate about the alleged abuser’s identity. Sohail Javed filed the case, claiming those clues pointed to him and that Jami failed to prevent or disavow the accusations in the comments.
The trial court ruled that Jami’s actions amounted to “reckless and malicious” defamation under Section 500 of the Pakistan Penal Code. It stated that Jami offered no credible proof regarding the authenticity of the letter, the identity of the survivor, or evidence that his publication served a legitimate public interest.
Despite the court's ruling, rights activists and artists have called the conviction a blow to free expression and a misuse of defamation laws to silence voices in the #MeToo movement. With bail now granted against surety bonds worth Rs50,000, Jami is expected to be released while his appeal is heard.