Leaders of the embattled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) have taken the Islamabad High Court’s today's verdict in favour of the incarcerated party founder Imran Khan and vice-chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi as a “first drop of rain” and expressed hopes for more relief in the coming days.
In a major relief to the embattled former ruling party, the IHC on Monday annulled Imran and Qureshi’s conviction in the infamous cipher case containing charges of misusing and misplacing the classified diplomatic document.
Commenting on the IHC’s verdict, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan said that a “baseless and unfounded” case came to its conclusion today. He added that the PTI founder spent 10 months in jail due to the cipher case — the controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022.
He claimed that the former prime minister would come out of jail very soon and pinned hopes on the judiciary to provide justice to the embattled party.
Gohar termed today’s verdict as the “first drop of rain" as the former ruling party has been facing a difficult situation since its ouster.
The politico added that all “politically-motivated cases based on vengeance” against the PTI leadership would also be nullified.
Similarly, the PTI-backed lawmakers in the Punjab Assembly also chanted slogans after the IHC acquitted the PTI founder and the party's vice-chairman in the cipher case.
The PTI lawmakers thumped their desks in the House in support of the former prime minister.
IHC Chief Justice Aamir Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb announced the short verdict on the pleas challenging the conviction in the cipher case after reserving it earlier today.
The PTI founder and party's vice-chairman were sentenced to 10 years each in prison in the cipher case in January this year.
The case pertains to allegations that the former prime minister had made public contents of a secret cable sent by the country's ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad.
The latest relief for the PTI founder came days after IHC approved his bail petition in the £190 million National Crime Agency (NCA) settlement reference on May 15.