Several petitions submitted by Imran Khan, chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), in connection with the current cypher case trial before a special court formed under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) have been consolidated by the Islamabad High Court (IHC).
At one point during the proceedings, IHC Chief Justice Aamir Farooq said he will issue orders to group the petitions together, which would include the motion to have the cypher case thrown out. The bail application for Imran, he added, would be handled independently.
On October 17, Imran filed a petition asking the special court to postpone its decision to indict him pending a review of the cypher case. After reviewing the applicable regulations, the chief justice promised to issue the order.
PTI’s Barrister Salman Safdar and Niazullah Niazi finished their arguments at Imran’s bail plea hearing in the cypher case. When they were done, Zulfiqar Abbas Naqvi, the prosecutor from the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), began his case.
Two other prosecutors, Raja Rizwan Abbasi and Shah Khawar, were present in court as well. Barrister Aitzaz Ahsan, a senior lawyer, was present, as was Imran Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, and others.
In March of last year, Imran, then the prime minister, held a public rally in Islamabad and waved a document about, calling it “evidence” of a foreign plan to remove him from office via a no-confidence resolution from the opposition.
The special prosecutor initially asked the judge to hear all the cases concurrently. He also said that the defendants in the cypher case had been given copies of the indictment on October 9 but that their attorneys were blocking the trial from moving forward.
The court heard that Imran’s attorneys had filed a petition objecting to the in-jail trial. The chief justice has promised that by Monday, a ruling will be made on the bail hearing appeal.
The bail application for Imran, he said, would be handled independently.
Barrister Safdar continued his arguments on the bail application by claiming that Imran was a political prisoner. He explained that the OSA only applied to active military personnel and that it had never been invoked against a sitting prime minister.
The lawyer emphasised that Imran was being accused of keeping the cypher and twisting it, but the statute dealt with exchanging intelligence with the enemy. In the FIR filed against Imran, it was stated that he must be apprehended in order to retrieve the cypher.
How did the prosecution know that the cypher had been tampered with, the defence attorney asked. He added that the Foreign Ministry received cypher, but that it was not the complaining party because the Interior Ministry had filed the complaint.
According to Barrister Safdar, the 7 March cypher was considered at length by the NSC and the federal cabinet. The issue was discussed once more at an April NSC meeting presided over by Shehbaz Sharif.
He went on to say that five months after the cypher went stolen from Prime Minister House, the cabinet notified the FIA. So, he reasoned, if the code was in the Prime Minister’s Office, then shouldn’t Shahbaz Sharif be a suspect?
He also made reference to Azam Khan, who served as the principal secretary to the previous prime minister Imran Khan. The attorney insisted that document upkeep fell under his department’s purview. If Azam Khan knew about the alleged criminal act committed by Imran, he should have been the one to file the complaint.
In his later arguments, Special Prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi argued that the law was applicable to the events that had place during military duty. He said that a trial in a military court was possible because the OSA was included in the Army Act in 1960, but that this was unnecessary.
The prosecutor confirmed the court’s finding that a prime minister, president, or governor cannot expose official secrets at any time during their lifetime. He added that the cypher was a top-secret document that no one person could keep to themselves. The hearing was eventually postponed until Monday.
Separately, PTI’s lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa will be testifying next Monday that an application connected to the case is pending in the IHC and the judgement has been reserved in preparation for the hearing of the plea against Imran’s indictment in the cypher case.
The chief justice mentioned on Thursday that there was one other application that may be considered alongside the main case. Khosa asked the judge to schedule the hearing before Imran’s indictment date of October 17. The chief justice promised an order and a hearing by October 17th.
Sher Afzal Marwat, another PTI attorney who appeared in court, argued that the defence team hadn’t received the case documents despite the trial court’s record to the contrary.
He also mentioned that a petition had been submitted to the IHC on the subject.
The application had been opposed by the Registrar Office, and the attorney asked the court to reconsider. The chief justice informed the PTI attorney that he would withdraw the objection once the court had finished reviewing the applicable rules.
Imran filed a separate appeal with the court challenging the National Accountability Bureau’s (NAB) decision to deny his bail in the £190 million corruption case and the Toshakhana case inquiry. Chief Justice Aamer Farooq headed the two-member bench with Justice Babar Sattar.
In the meantime, an Islamabad Civil judge has requested arguments from PTI’s attorney, Sher Afzal Marwat, about the illegal marriage of Imran and Bushra Bibi. On Thursday, the court scheduled a hearing but Marwat did not show up. The court session will resume on October 23.
