Imran moves IHC against cipher case indictment

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief Imran Khan on Wednesday moved the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against his indictment in the cipher case by a special court formed under the Official Secrets Act.

Earlier this week, the special court indicted Khan and his deputy Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cipher case that included charges of violating the secret law by misusing and misplacing the diplomatic cable based on conversations between Pakistan’s envoy to Washington and the US diplomat during the tenure of Khan-led government last year.

Special court judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain read out the charges, which said that Imran Khan “illegally retained and wrongly communicated” the cipher.

“The said information/cipher related to top secret information, which were inter-se two states i.e., United States and Pakistan,” said the charge-sheet, adding that the PTI chief used the cipher in a “prohibited place (jalsa)” and “wilfuly communicated” the secret information to the participants, in violation of “interests of the State of Pakistan”.

In a petition filed through his counsels Salman Safdar and Khalid Yousaf, the incarcerated former prime minister implored the IHC to declare his indictment null and void citing procedural lapses. Complainant Yousuf Naseem Khokhar and the state have been made parties in the petition. The petition said the charges could be framed after seven days of distribution of challan copies but the trial court did not fulfill legal requirement in this regard.

It contended that the special court indicted the PTI chief in haste and also wanted to hold hasty trial proceedings.

The petitioner said the IHC had not issued any direction to the special court to hear the case on a daily basis and conclude the trial early.

“Proceedings with a hasty trial will affect fundamental constitutional rights,” the petitioner said.

It said the trial proceedings cannot move forward in the absence of main evidence (cipher) and prayed the IHC to annul the Oct 23 decision of the special court. Khan and Qureshi are currently in the Adiala jail on judicial remand in the cipher case.

In August, the FIA arrested the PTI chief and the party’s vice chairman under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly misplacing and misusing the classified document for vested political interests.

Khan was taken into custody after being sentenced to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case on August 5, 2023. Initially, he was kept in the Attock jail but later he was moved to Adiala jail.

It is pertinent to mention here that the IHC on August 29 had suspended the sentence handed down to the PTI chairman in the Toshakhana case but he remains behind bars due to his arrest in the cipher case.