On Saturday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) scheduled a hearing for Monday (tomorrow) to consider the bail application of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and ex-prime minister Imran Khan in the cipher case.
The PTI leader’s bail application was put on the cause list released by the IHC registrar for next week’s sessions.
Aamer Farooq, chief justice of the IHC, will hear the case.
The court has formally requested the FIA’s response.
In addition, the IHC, which had previously delayed ruling on the former prime minister’s plea to move him from Attock to Adiala Jail, has now scheduled a new hearing on the matter. This petition will also be heard by Justice Farooq on September 25.
After hearing all of the evidence and arguments, the court has reserved its decision.
It has set the hearing for next week so that some legal issues can be properly clarified.
Imran’s bail application had already been denied by a special court established to hear cases under the Official Secrets Act.
Request for Bail
In a petition submitted on his behalf by attorneys Barrister Salman Safdar and Khalid Mehmood, the former prime minister asked the court to grant him bail so that he may be released from Attock jail.
The PTI leader claimed that the prosecution had submitted a malicious and manufactured case, and that the special court set up to handle matters relating to the Official Secrets Act “completely ignored several of the prosecution’s irregularities and contradictions.”
Special court judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain wrote in his written judgement that the prosecution had “irrefutable evidence against Imran Khan and [PTI leader] Shah Mahmood Qureshi to prove their connection to the case” and that the cypher case was a top-secret matter.
According to the court, “Sufficient incriminating evidence is available on record to connect the accused with the instant case.”
According to a seven-page written judgement, “there appear reasonable grounds for believing that the accused/petitioners are guilty of the offence [under] sections 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 in light of the content of the instant FIR.”
In addition, there are reasonable suspicions that the petitioners/accused have committed a crime for which bail cannot be granted. The bails of both accused can be denied based on the color-coded record of numerous papers.
The Unbreakable Cypher Saga
Former premier Imran Khan had taken out a piece of paper, purportedly a diplomatic cypher, and waved it at a public meeting in Islamabad on March 27, 2022, before facing a vote of no-confidence, claiming it was evidence of a “international conspiracy” to destroy his government.
On July 19 of this year, the FIA began investigating the so-called “cipher-gate” after the PML-N led coalition government declared an official inquiry against the former PM and his close allies for breaking the Official Secrets Act, 1923 over unauthorised possession of a sensitive document.
On August 19, the agency that has been investigating PTI corruption detained former Foreign Minister Qureshi.
On August 26th, Imran was questioned by a team from the FIA’s Counter Terrorism Wing about the matter while he was being held in the Attock prison. On August 29th, the agency reported the arrest of Imran.
