Karachi: A Sindh High Court judge hearing a Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) defamation case against Imran Khan, slapped a 50,000 rupees (Dh1,804) fine on the cricketer turned politician for not appearing in court on Monday.

The MQM had filed a five billion rupees defamation case against Khan some two years back and it was formally admitted into the court early this year for hearing.

The party accused Khan of maligning its chief Altaf Hussain and hurling baseless allegations of his role in the murder of Zohra Shahid, a senior leader of Khan’s party who was gunned down in Karachi a day before the national Elections in May 2013.

In an earlier hearing the court had ordered Khan to submit his written statement but, despite those orders, he failed to record any written or verbal statement for the court.

Forfeiting the right of submitting the written statement the court had summoned Khan into the court to record his statement. However, Khan’s lawyer Musharraf Azhar failed to convince the court of his absence.

Justice Shafi Siddiqui imposed the fine of 50,000 rupees on Khan and ordered his lawyer to ensure Khan’s appearance and to submit his statement before the court in the next hearing.

The court would give the next hearing date in office.

Meanwhile, in yet another hearing involving MQM, this time over the party’s missing workers, a two-member bench of the Sindh High Court headed by Ahmad Ali M. Shaikh summoned the director-general of the Paramilitary Rangers, provincial police chief and other government officials in the next hearing of the case.

The MQM had filed a petition seeking the court’s ruling over 24 party workers who went missing after the Rangers raided on the MQM headquarters last week.

Petitioner Gulfaraz Khan, a member of the coordination committee of the party, filed the case stating that over 100 men were arrested during the raid but the Rangers did not produce 24 workers in a court of law.

The MQM counsel said in court that 87 of the party’s workers were produced into the court seeking their physical remands.

The party lawyers also requested the court to order the Rangers and the police to give families and the lawyers access to the arrested workers.