All recipients, except PTI founder, returned cipher copy, FIA tells IHC

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court said on Thursday that when the cipher case was registered, several people had not returned the cipher copies they had, and asked if it meant it was right for the rest of the people to keep those copies after a case was registered only against the PTI founder.

A Federal Investigation Agency prosecutor submitted that the rest of the persons had returned the cipher copies. Regarding PTI founder Imran Khan, he said the prosecution knew that he had lost the cipher copy.

He said the PTI founder deliberately kept the cipher copy and negligently did not return it. He said the court had to ascertain whether the copy of the cipher reached the accused or not.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb were hearing the appeals against the convictions of Imran Khan and Shah Mohammad Qureshi in the cipher case.

The CJ inquired the special prosecutor whether he would admit that the charges of willful non-return of the cipher copy and negligent loss could not be made simultaneously. FIA Special Prosecutor Hamid Ali Shah said that when the cipher came to the PTI founder, he deliberately kept it with himself, and then negligently did not return its copy.

The chief justice asked the prosecutor what the PTI founder had actually made public when he (the prosecutor) claimed that the PTI founder made this or that public. He said the cipher was not on the court record.

Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb asked where the recipient of the cipher document was and if that person must have known what the consequences of keeping the cipher with them would be. He said the document was to be given to the prime minister by the principal secretary to the prime minister.

The FIA prosecutor said he would assist the court in this regard later. He said the cipher is an accountable classified document. Then Pakistani ambassador Asad Majeed sent the cipher to the Foreign Ministry and the witness who kept the master copy said it was a classified document, he said.

He said the officer who received the cipher telegram said that he downloaded it and placed a number on it. He said that the author of the cipher stated that the conversation in a meeting was written in the form of a cipher.

Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb remarked that the prosecution was saying that one witness was saying this and another witness was saying that, but the document is not on even record. The court observed that the case was like a person who was killed but his body was not to be shown.

The prosecutor submitted that that the cipher was in crypto form and had the secret document number on it. The movement of the cipher is done in a secure container according to the cipher guideline.

The chief hjustice inquired what was meant by the container. The prosecutor said the document was sent in a container, which was a leather bag. He said the cipher copy is sent so that action could be suggested after it had been read.

He said that persons who were asked to return the cipher copies had returned the copies, but the cipher copy was not returned from the Prime Minister House and the prosecution knew that it had been lost.

The FIA prosecutor told the court that he would complete the arguments in three to four hearings, after which the hearing was adjourned till April 30.