Staff Report
ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan will be indicted in the cypher case on October 17, announced the court on Monday as the hearing of the cypher case against him officially began.
The hearing was presided over by special court Judge Abdul Hasnaat Zulqarnain. Prosecutor Zulfiqar Abbas Naqvi, , Imran’s counsel Salman Safdar as well as Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Shah Mehmod Qureshi’s daughter and son were also present at the hearing.
During today’s hearing at the Adiala jail, copies of the charge-sheet were distributed among Imran and Qureshi’s – his co-accused – lawyers. The PTI chief’s lawyers also met him briefly in the prison van.
Prosecutor Naqvi informed the court that all the necessary copies had been provided to the court.
Later, the court then issued directives for all government witnesses to be summoned along with the charge-sheet on October 17.
Previously, the Federal Investigation Agency (PTI) had claimed that the former PM was guilty of breaching the Official Secrets Act of 1923 and deserved to be punished as per the law.
The charge-sheet submitted by the FIA to a special court also accused Shah Mahmood Qureshi of facili-tating Imran.
Last week, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected the FIA’s petition for holding in-camera proceed-ings of the bail application of the PTI chairman.
Announcing the reserved verdict on FIA’s petition, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq ruled that the mat-ter would be heard before an open court but the documents to be kept confidential, would remain so after consulting the counsel. The court fixed the bail application hearing for October 9.
The cypher case concerns a diplomatic cable, which reportedly went missing from Imran’s possession. Imran had repeatedly said before and after the no-confidence motion against him last year that the cipher pointed to a conspiracy to remove him from the prime minister’s office.
Imran was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. He was incarcerated on August 5, 2023, after an Islamabad court sentenced him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case. The PTI chief was lodged in the Attock District Jail to serve his prison term.
Later, his sentence was suspended by the IHC, but then the PTI chief was arrested in the cypher case and remained in the Attock jail on judicial remand. Later, a special court was formed under Official Se-crets Act to try Imran inside the jail premises.
PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was the foreign minister in the Imran-led govern-ment, is also implicated in the case. In the last hearing of the case on September 26, their judicial re-mand was extended till October 10.
PTI chief’s counsel Sher Afzal Marwat while talking to the media ahead of the hearing said that Imran told him that he has confidence in the country’s legal system.
Criticising the PTI chief and former foreign minister being held inside a prison van, the lawyer said that the accused were brought to court in a “small cage”. “This is inhumane,” he stated. Marwat said that bitter words were exchanged between the prosecutor and Imran’s lawyers.
The IHC’s decision regarding holding an in-camera trial of the cypher case was expected soon, he said, “The judge ordered Imran to sign the copy of the challan (charge-sheet), but we resisted and protest-ed,” Marwat stated, adding that “the PTI chairman did not sign the ‘duplicate document’”.
Moreover, Salman Safdar, Imran’s counsel in the cypher case said that the former premier has pro-tested the “inhuman” treatment being given to him at Adiala jail. Safdar said that Imran wanted facili-ties as per the jail manual. He wants space for movement and exercise in the jail room, said Safdar.
“This is not a fair trial, people, and we do not accept it,” the lawyer added. The PTI chairman did not receive the copy; he did not sign it because cypher cases cannot be heard in “closed rooms”.
