New cases to be lodged against Imran, says Sanaullah after cipher relief

Reacting to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder's relief in multiple cases including cipher, Adviser to Prime Minister on Political and Public Affairs Rana Sanaullah has said that new cases will be lodged against Imran Khan in the coming days.

Sanaullah, the former security czar, said while speaking on Geo News programme “Capital Talk” and was questioned about the former prime minister’s expected relief and release in other cases based on “benefit of the doubt” after the Islamabad High Court’s verdict in the cipher case.

The ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) senior leader bluntly replied that the PTI founder’s release was not dependent on his iddat case's verdict. He admitted that an accused is given a benefit of doubt under Pakistan’s laws.

“Doubts can be created in a simple matter...at one time, we saw back-to-back sentences without the creation of doubts. It is likely to see doubts in the iddat case as well just like we saw in the cipher case,” the politico commented.

He was of the view that the iddat case was being termed as a “personal affair” of a political leader, however, a public personality has no personal affairs. The former interior minister said that Khan was nominated in the cases in which confessions were made for their crimes.

To another question regarding new cases, Sanaullah admitted that new cases would be filed in the days to come. Pointing out the former premier’s controversial X post on 1971 fall of Dhaka, he signalled that a case could be lodged against the former premier for posting the controversial video.

"Every Pakistani should study the Hamood ur Rahman Commission Report and get to know who was the true traitor, General Yahya Khan or Sheikh Mujibur Rahman," the post read.

Last week, the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) anti-cybercrime team started an investigation into the much-talked-about post.

He reiterated that the PTI founder brought the country to a dead end from where there were only two options left, one is a democratic way which leads towards dialogues and another way is confrontation. He added that there was no chance for the PTI to choose the confrontation.

The politico insisted that the democratic parties had never refused to hold dialogues, however, there was no response from the former ruling party.

Cases and relief

Imran Khan has remained behind bars in Adiala jail since August 2023, while several current and former politicians of his party are facing various allegations in the cases related to the violence following his arrest on May 9.

It is noteworthy to mention here that the former prime minister, who ruled the country from 2018 to 2022 before being ousted from office via a no-confidence motion, had gotten relief in the cipher case as the IHC quashed his conviction and ordered his release.

Subsequently, a district and sessions court in Islamabad had also fixed the iddat case on June 7 following an appeal of Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi for an early hearing of petitions she filed against her conviction.

The plea by Bushra was filed a day after the IHC accepted District and Sessions Judge Shahrukh Arjumand's request seeking transfer of the iddat case to another court.

In another development two days ago, a district and sessions court in the federal capital also acquitted Khan and the party's vice-chairman leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi in two cases pertaining to the long march vandalism.

On May 16, the IHC also approved the PTI founder's bail petition in the £190 million National Crime Agency (NCA) settlement reference, but he remains behind bars due to conviction in iddat case.