Imran to face trial under secrets act for cipher plot: Rana Sana

ISLAMABAD: The former Principal Secretary of Imran Khan, who had gone missing for some time, made headlines on Wednesday after he accused the ex-prime minister of using the US cipher to create a false narrative against the military establishment and the-then opposition.

Azam Khan, who has been “missing” since last month, recorded his statement under Section 164 of CrPC before an Area Magistrate, Islamabad, Aveed Irshad Bhatti, here on Wednesday, sources said with no information about his whereabouts. The police had registered a case under the charges of “abduction” regarding Azam Khan at the Kohsar Police Station, which was later withdrawn by the former top bureaucrat.

In response to the development, former prime minister Imran Khan termed Azam an honest man and said he would not accept the statement until he heard the bureaucrat say it himself.

On his remarks at Twitter, the former prime minister said, “In their feverish attempts to implicate me in any case just to get me disqualified and jailed, this current assortment of incompetent crooks have again shot themselves in the foot. They have provided me with an opportunity to do a proper exposé of this whole Cipher drama.

“Tomorrow I will share the uncensored details of how this conspiracy unfolded to overthrow a govt which had the best economic performance in the last 17 years and bring these money launderers and crooks into power who have run the country to the ground. I assure you it will be more gripping than any drama on tv.”

According to Azam’s purported confessional statement, on March 8, 2022, the-then foreign secretary approached him and informed him of the cipher, which was sent to his residence later that evening. Khan said the foreign secretary told him that then foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had already discussed the cipher with the PTI chief. This was confirmed the next day when Azam Khan presented the diplomatic cable to the former prime minister, according to the alleged statement.

Khan allegedly used the cipher to manipulate the public’s attention towards foreign involvement in the no-confidence motion by the opposition, Azam Khan said. He claimed that when he shared the diplomatic cable with Imran, the former premier was “euphoric” and termed the language as a “US blunder”. It mentions that Imran told him he would display the cipher in a public rally and “twist the narrative that a foreign conspiracy is being hatched in collusion with the establishment and opposition’s no-confidence motion to play the victim card”.

When Azam, according to the sources, told Imran Khan that the cipher was a secret document and its content could not be disclosed before the public, the then-premier suggested a formal meeting with then-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi and then-foreign secretary Sohail Mahmood “where they can read the cipher from the foreign ministry’s copy (as Imran Khan’s original copy was still lost) and from minutes of the meeting further decision could be made.

The confession mentioned that later the-then premier decided to call special meetings of the cabinet and National Security Division to discuss the diplomatic cable. Khan allegedly told the magistrate that all ciphers received from MOFA are returned to the ministry’s representative in the prime minister’s office but while he held the post of principal secretary, the original copy of this cable cipher remained “lost” as the PTI chief did not return it despite repeated requests.

The controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran, less than a month before his ouster, brandished a letter at a public rally, claiming it to be a cipher from a foreign nation, which mentioned the removal of his government from power. The former prime minister, claiming that he was reading contents from the cipher, said that “all will be forgiven for Pakistan if Imran Khan is removed from power”.

At that point, he neither ‘revealed the contents of the letter’ nor mentioned the name of the nation that had sent it. The diplomatic cable was about former Pakistan ambassador to the US Asad Majeed’s meeting with Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu.

But a few days later, he named the United States and Donald Lu and sought his removal. Then on March 31, the National Security Committee (NSC) took up the issue and decided to issue a “strong demarche” to the country for its “blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan”.

The US has time and again denied such allegations, terming them “categorically false”.

Later, after his removal, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a meeting of the NSC, which came to the conclusion that it had found no evidence of a foreign conspiracy in the cipher. Later, in the two audio leaks that took the internet by storm and shocked the public, the former prime minister, then-federal minister Asad Umar, and then-principal secretary Azam Khan could allegedly be heard discussing the US cable and how to exploit it in their interest.

On September 30, the federal cabinet took notice of the issue and constituted a committee to probe the contents of the audio leaks. In October, the cabinet gave the green signal to initiate action against the former prime minister and handed over the case to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA). Once the FIA was given the task to probe the matter, it summoned Khan, Asad Umar, and other leaders of the party, but the PTI chief challenged the summons and secured a stay order from the court.

On July 18, the Lahore High Court recalled the stay order against the call-up notice to Khan by the FIA.

In his reaction to the development, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah said that the confessional statement has exposed Imran Khan’s conspiracy narrative based on the diplomatic cipher. “The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman [Imran Khan] tarnished the reputation of state institutions through cipher conspiracy. He should be punished for staging the drama,” the interior minister said while addressing a press conference in Islamabad.

Sanaullah said former foreign minister and PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi was also involved in concocting the false narrative. The Cable Gate was cooked up by the-then ruling party to achieve their vested interests, he added.

Elaborating on the alleged crime, the minister said, “Making a classified document or a [piece of] information public and then taking it in one’s possession — no person is legally eligible to have it (cipher) in their custody”.

The minister also likened the case to proceedings initiated against former US president Donald Trump on allegations of mishandling classified documents. He further alleged that while “Imran told Azam that the cipher had gone missing, my assessment is that he (Imran) still has it”.

“So the cipher is with him. He has not just committed the crime of making it public, but continues to be guilty of a crime by keeping it in his possession until he is arrested in this case and the cipher is recovered,” Sanaullah said.

The interior minister was also asked about whether a case against those involved in the alleged conspiracy would be registered under Article 6 (high treason) of the Constitution. “The law department’s opinion would be the final [decision] on this, but I think the Official Secrets Act is more relevant [in this case],” Sanaullah said. “Nevertheless, this is a punishable crime — to conspire against the country, expose a secret document and use it for your own interests and to damage the country’s interest and then to steal it, take it in your possession — this is a clear crime under the Official Secrets Act and it should be prosecuted.

“A punishment should be meted out over this and the [cipher] should be recovered,” he said. The security czar said “If he [Imran Khan] can sacrifice the national interest for personal gains, then he can do anything.”

He went on to say that the cipher conspiracy made it clear that May 9 incident was the continuation of the same plot. Sanaullah said the former principal secretary’s confessional statement against Imran was a charge sheet against him. “PTI chairman will be held accountable for this crime. This is a matter of national interest,” the interior minister added.

Sanaullah said a case will be registered against the PTI chief following his former principal secretary’s confessional statement and the state will become a complainant in the matter. “This case will be sent to a special court,” he added.

Talking to the media in Islamabad, Special Assistant on Interior Attaullah Tarar said the Federal Investigation Agency has been directed to immediately initiate investigations against Imran Khan Niazi. He said the trial against Imran Niazi will be started without any delay.

Quoting the Lahore High Court’s recent decision of vacating a stay order against Imran Khan Niazi, Attaullah Tarar said now there is no bar on undertaking any investigation against the PTI chief. He said Imran Khan, by waving a secret document in a public rally, violated the Official Secrets Act and misguided the people of Pakistan to build his false narrative for his vested political interests.

The Special Assistant said the confessional statement of ex-Principal Secretary Azam Khan is irrefutable evidence against the PTI chief. He said what an irony it is that Imran Khan Niazi accused a country of hatching a conspiracy in connivance with the then opposition to overthrow his government through the no-confidence motion. He misguided the people of Pakistan under the slogan of “Absolutely Not”, but now he is seeking help from the same country in the name of so-called human rights violations in Pakistan.

In a related development, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has summoned the former premier for investigations into the case. Khan has been asked to appear at the FIA headquarters on July 25, and bring documents related to the case with him. In the summons, the FIA has warned the PTI chairman that action will be taken against him if he fails to appear. The FIA has been investigating the cipher case since last year.

In its reaction, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf termed the unconfirmed and unverified statement attributed to former principal secretary to PM Azam Khan as a collection of contradictions and part of a malicious scheme to keep Chairman Imran Khan out of the political arena.

The PTI spokesperson said the ex-principal secretary has been missing for the past one month, and hence the statement is a collection of contradictions and a part of the same malicious scheme to keep Imran Khan out of the political arena come what may.

He pointed out that the veracity of Azam Khan’s statement was yet to be ascertained, but it was an irrefutable fact that he had been missing since June 17 while a formal case had been registered regarding his disappearance and the federal police were still unable to trace his whereabouts.

The PTI spokesperson went on to say that recording statements under Section 164 by a missing person in front of the magistrate was unimaginable in the eyes of legal experts, adding that disclosing the contents of 164 statement of a missing person was a separate crime.

He stated that the National Security Committee confirmed the contents of the cipher in its meetings chaired by two different prime ministers -- Imran Khan and Shehbaz Sharif. He added that in both of the meetings, the entire civil and military leadership unanimously called the cipher “blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan”.

The spokesperson stated that on the basis of the cipher, America was demarched in Islamabad and Washington, adding that a special cabinet meeting before the National Security Committee meeting reviewed the cipher and declassified it. He continued that both the National Assembly speaker and the president recommended the Chief Justice of Pakistan to carry out a comprehensive and effective probe into the cipher issue.

Meanwhile, PTI Central Punjab General Secretary Hammad Azhar said that they again demand the Chief Justice of Pakistan to hold an independent investigation into the cipher issue. “The individuals that now suddenly claim to be attributing statements to him should be investigated immediately,” he added.