Encoding issue when parsing JSON data from server... (Arabic)

I am developing an android app with both English and Arabic language support. In this, I am parsing Json data from server which contain both English and Arabic. I have to display English or Arabic text which is parsed from Json, according to user language selection. I can display the English string successfully. But while trying to display the arabic string it showing some weird characters.

Please note that I don't have much knowledge in Character Encoding. So please don’t blame me if it is a wrong question.

getjsondata function

 private class GetJsondata extends AsyncTask<Void, Void, ArrayList<ArrayList<String>>> {

    @Override
    protected void onPreExecute() {
        dialog = ProgressDialog.show(getActivity(), "", getActivity().getResources().getString(R.string.pleasewait), true);
    }

    @Override
    protected ArrayList<ArrayList<String>> doInBackground(Void... arg0) {
        // Creating service handler class instance
        ConnectivityManager conMgr = (ConnectivityManager) getActivity().getSystemService(Context.CONNECTIVITY_SERVICE);
        NetworkInfo activeNetwork = conMgr.getActiveNetworkInfo();
        if (activeNetwork != null && activeNetwork.isConnected()) {
            ServiceHandler sh = new ServiceHandler();

            // Making a request to url and getting response
            String jsonStr = sh.makeServiceCall(url, ServiceHandler.GET);

            Log.d("Response: ", "> " + jsonStr);

            if (jsonStr != null) {
                try {
                    jsonObj = new JSONObject(jsonStr);
                    ObjectOutput out = new ObjectOutputStream(new FileOutputStream
                            (new File(getActivity().getCacheDir(), "") + File.separator + "cacheFile.srl"));
                    out.writeObject(jsonObj.toString());
                    out.close();
                } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (JSONException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                } catch (IOException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            } else {
                Log.e("ServiceHandler", "Couldn't get any data from the url");
            }
        }
        else{
            try {
                ObjectInputStream in = new ObjectInputStream(new FileInputStream
                        (new File(getActivity().getCacheDir() + File.separator + "cacheFile.srl")));
                jsonObj = new JSONObject((String) in.readObject());
                in.close();
            } catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (OptionalDataException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (FileNotFoundException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (StreamCorruptedException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (JSONException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
            if(jsonObj!=null) {
                try {
                    ofrList = new ArrayList<ArrayList<String>>();
                    // Getting JSON Array node
                    contacts = jsonObj.getJSONArray("offers");

                    shoplistarray = new ArrayList<ArrayList<String>>();


                    // looping through All Contacts
                    for (int i = 0; i < contacts.length(); i++) {
                        JSONObject c = contacts.getJSONObject(i);

                        String url = c.getString("url");
                        if (userPrefs.getString("locale",null)==null || userPrefs.getString("locale",null).equals("en")) {
                            desc = c.getString("desc");
                        }
                        else{
                            String s= c.getString("desc_ar");
                            try {
                                byte[] b= s.getBytes("UTF-8");
                                desc = new String(b, "UTF-16");
                            } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
                                e.printStackTrace();
                            }

                        }
                        String expdate = c.getString("expdate");
                        String ofrdate = c.getString("date");
                        ArrayList<String> ofrData = new ArrayList<String>();
                        ofrData.add(url);
                        ofrData.add(desc);
                        ofrData.add(expdate);
                        ofrData.add(ofrdate);
                        ofrList.add(ofrData);
                        shoplist = new ArrayList<String>();
                        shopsarray = c.getJSONArray("shops");
                        for (int n = 0; n < shopsarray.length(); n++) {

                            JSONObject jobj = shopsarray.getJSONObject(n);
                            String shopid = jobj.getString("shopid");
                            shoplist.add(shopid);
                        }
                        shoplistarray.add(shoplist);
                    }

                } catch (JSONException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }



        return ofrList;
    }

servicehandler.java

package com.alsafeer.xpressions;

 import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
 import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
 import org.apache.http.NameValuePair;
 import org.apache.http.client.ClientProtocolException;
 import org.apache.http.client.entity.UrlEncodedFormEntity;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
 import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
 import org.apache.http.client.utils.URLEncodedUtils;
 import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
 import org.apache.http.protocol.HTTP;
 import org.apache.http.util.EntityUtils;

 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
 import java.util.List;

 public class ServiceHandler {

static String response = null;
public final static int GET = 1;
public final static int POST = 2;

public ServiceHandler() {

}

/*
 * Making service call
 * @url - url to make request
 * @method - http request method
 * */
public String makeServiceCall(String url, int method) {
    return this.makeServiceCall(url, method, null);
}

/*
 * Making service call
 * @url - url to make request
 * @method - http request method
 * @params - http request params
 * */
public String makeServiceCall(String url, int method,
        List<NameValuePair> params) {
    try {
        // http client
        DefaultHttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
        HttpEntity httpEntity = null;
        HttpResponse httpResponse = null;

        // Checking http request method type
        if (method == POST) {
            HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(url);
            // adding post params
            if (params != null) {
                httpPost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(params));
            }

            httpResponse = httpClient.execute(httpPost);

        } else if (method == GET) {
            // appending params to url
            if (params != null) {
                String paramString = URLEncodedUtils
                        .format(params, "UTF-8");
                url += "?" + paramString;
            }
            HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);

            httpResponse = httpClient.execute(httpGet);

        }
        httpEntity = httpResponse.getEntity();
        response = EntityUtils.toString(httpEntity, HTTP.UTF_8);

    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    return response;
   }
}