11-year-old sues Pakistan President House for speech plagiarism

Islamabad: Eleven-year-old Mohammad Sabeel Haider, who is sixth-grade student at Islamabad Model College for Boys, has sued officials of Pakistan’s President’s House over alleged plagiarism of his speech without his consent.

Sabeel Haider said that he was chosen to deliver a speech at the President’s House in Islamabad on December 22.

The ceremony was recorded and was supposed to be aired on Pakistan Television on December 25, marking the 141st birth anniversary of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan.

However, when Sabeel arrived at the President’s House, he was informed he will no longer be delivering the speech. He said in his petition that a tenth-grader delivered the speech he had written and prepared, alleging that his intellectual property was stolen.

According to Sabeel’s lawyer, as per Section 3 of Intellectual Property and Copyrights Ordinance 1967, a literary piece that the person has produced themselves cannot be used by a third party without their consent.

Calling it “stealing”, the counsel termed the act of the respondents a violation of intellectual property, intellect, and copyrights and sought that they be restrained from airing the speech on electronic or social media.

The counsel said Haider’s speech was forwarded for approval from the presidency, adding that the respondents had approved it.