A DEFAMATION case, which normally would have gone unnoticed, turned into a trial of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, ISI, in London’s Royal High Court this week, when a retired Pakistan Army brigadier sued a retired major and spent hundreds of thousands of British pounds, to recover 50,000 pounds in damages at best.

Looks odd, but the case filed by retired Brig Rashid Naseer vs retired Major Adil Raja, that started in 2022, ended on July 24, 2025, and a judgment is expected in a few days. What it has already done as an unintended consequence, is to expose the ISI and its worst criminal activities and heinous violations of human rights in Pakistan over the years.

The narrow range of accusations, some 10 tweets by Major Raja in 2022, claimed that his reputation had been hurt, his wife and mother had received an anonymous phone call each and his daughter could not come to the UK for her college degree and he had to send her to an expensive US university.

Interestingly the brigadier filed the suit while he was still in service and accepted in his cross-examination that he had sought permission from his higher officers and even the then army chief was involved and had sent him a questionnaire asking explanation about Major Raja’s tweets.
So in a way, the entire ISI and the army had consented to his decision to file the case in the London High Court and though, it was not admitted in the court, it appeared that funds were being provided to the brigadier by others as his pension could not sustain the heavy legal fees.
On the contrary, Major Raja sought public support and collected donations from his supporters and followers around the world and received generous donations to pay for legal fees.
Basically, the brigadier and the ISI probably thought that the major, who had earlier been charged in sedition cases in Pakistan, was declared an absconder and had sought refuge in the UK, whose properties and bank accounts were seized by the Pakistan Government, would not be able to face the heavy financial cost and would settle the case.

But Mr Raja stood up to fight and was backed up by all freedom-loving Pakistanis.
Three of his supporters, including me, voluntarily offered to become his witnesses and to testify in the High Court. After over two years finally the trial finally started on July 21, 2025 and ended on the 24th.

As written statements had already been recorded, the trial was to cross-examine the claimant, the defendant and the three witnesses.

But here is what went wrong for the brigadier and the ISI. The honourable judge asked the claimant to provide evidence of what “serious harm” had been done by the tweets of Major Raja and he could not produce anything except saying that he was being looked at with suspicion and faced stares on the streets and his daughter could not get admission in a UK college.
In their cross-examinations, defendant Raja and the witnesses broadened the scope of the claimant’s accusations to bring in his conduct as Sector Commander of the ISI against the people of Pakistan and the role of the ISI in unleashing a reign of terror against democracy, the rule of law, the judicial system and basic human rights.

While all these charges against the ISI had never been discussed in any Pakistani court or the heavily controlled media, the case and the statements brought every charge and crime on record in the London High Court, something that would have been otherwise impossible for any human rights organisation or Pakistani citizen to achieve.

Two important points were brought out and the judge allowed them to be discussed in the case which could hurt the ISI and the Pakistan Army in the long run.

First was the case of the murder of a prominent Pakistani TV anchor and journalist in Kenya, Arshad Sharif, who was hounded by the agencies in Pakistan, went to the UAE and was forced out of the UAE within 48 hours to land in Kenya as he was facing death threats.

Major Raja, during his cross-examination, accused the ISI and then provided several pieces of evidence in which the ISI was seen involved in his murder in official reports in Pakistan, Kenya and in major international newspapers.

It was for the first time in over two years that such evidence was revealed, and that too in a London court whereas in Pakistan even an initial report of the murder of journalist Sharif was not registered. His mother’s woeful cries against the army, the ISI and the government went unheard. But the retired brigadier had made it possible in London.

The second point was my testimony that the brigadier was spending thousands of pounds for minor unsustained charges of defamation but every one was ignoring the “Invisible elephant” in the room — the grave crimes of ISI under his watch in Pakistan where thousands had been arrested, abducted by masked gunmen from their homes and many killed during this illegal captivity.

Even the judge was a bit taken by surprise but he allowed the statement to be recorded. Another important witness, retired Colonel Akbar Hussain went a step further in his testimony and said the elephant in the room was not invisible but every Pakistani could touch and feel the heavy feet crushing his head.

The third witness, Barrister Shahzad Akbar, a former official in the jailed prime minister Imran Khan’s government overthrown in April 2022, testified that the brigadier was responsible for a lot of crimes as he was interacting directly with him and passing orders.

The case closed after final arguments but what the stupidity of the brigadier and his seniors had achieved was laying bare the despicable role of the ISI and the army before the world, something the dictatorship in Pakistan would never have allowed. How they react is yet to be seen.

No matter which way the judge rules, granting a few thousand or hundred pounds to the claimant or the defendant, it would be simply irrelevant as for four days the public trial of ISI and the Army had come into legal and public record books.

The brigadier, who initially complained that people in London stared at him on the streets after the 10 tweets, will now face the stares of people around the world, wherever he goes.