In a press conference held in Islamabad on Tuesday, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) declared that former prime minister Imran Khan should be punished for breaking the law by illegally possessing a diplomatic cypher.
The CIA also mentioned Imran’s public rally speech on March 27, 2022 in Islamabad in its charge-sheet given to a special court on Saturday, accusing former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi of aiding Imran.
The FIA has asked the special court judge, Abual Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain, to try and sentence the two top PTI leaders after finding them guilty of breaking the Official Secrets Act.
At a rally on March 27, 2022, former premier Imran pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket, which he claimed was a diplomatic cypher, and presented it as proof of a “international conspiracy” to bring down his government.
After the PML-N led coalition government ordered an official inquiry against the former PM and his close friends for violating the Official Secrets Act, 1923 by abusing a sensitive document, the FIA began its investigation into the so-called “cypher-gate” on July 19, 2023.
On August 19, the FIA arrested Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the vice chairman of the PTI and the country’s foreign minister while the PTI was in power. On August 29th, the agency nabbed Imran.
Asad Umar, a former PTI secretary general, is not on the FIA’s list of suspects.
The charge-sheet includes sworn testimony from Azam Khan, Imran’s former principal secretary, in accordance with Sections 161 and 164 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.
The speeches made by Imran and Qureshi at the gathering on March 27, 2022, are also included in the charge-sheet. The FIA has also provided the court with a list of 28 witnesses, with testimonies from 27 of those witnesses attached to the challan.
Asad Majeed, Sohail Mehmood, and Faisal Niaz Timrizi, all former foreign secretaries, are among the witnesses. Sources indicate that at the next court session, copies of the charge-sheet would be given to Imran and Qureshi. After that, the court will indict the defendant.
It is up to the discretion of the court to decide whether or not the defence is allowed to read this statement. Whether or if the court will enable Imran’s attorneys to review a copy of Azam Khan’s statement remains to be seen.
PTO spokeswoman “unequivocally refuted the claims given by the FIA, terming the filed challan “devoid of substance” in response to the charge-sheet.
He called the accusations against PTI head Imran Khan and vice head Shah Mahmood Qureshi “as hollow as the purported cypher case itself.”
The Foreign Office still had the original cypher paper, the spokeswoman stressed, lending credence to the assertion that the allegations against the former prime minister were baseless.
The cypher document was declassified by the federal cabinet using its inherent powers, the spokesperson emphasised, effectively rendering the Official Secrets Act, 1923 inapplicable and leading naturally to the case’s natural conclusion.
While “Imran had consistently called for an impartial investigation into the cypher case,” no movement was made despite his repeated written petitions to Pakistan’s chief justice and president.
The representative outlined a number of concerns, including the secretive nature of the trial within prison walls and the seemingly unreasonable delays in court processes.
A verdict reached in an illegal trial in a fabricated case, he insisted, would be invalid and would not be recognised by the country.
PTI core committee member Shaheen Shoaib claimed that a bogus case had been brought against the party’s top two leaders. He proposed that a Supreme Court judge head an elite judicial commission to look into the allegations.
