On Wednesday, the indictment of former prime minister Imran Khan in the cipher case by Special court judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain was challenged in a petition filed with the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), asked the IHC to throw out his indictment due to procedural errors in a petition that was submitted through his attorneys Salman Safdar and Khalid Yousaf.

The development occurred after Khan and his deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi were indicted earlier this week by the special court established under the Official Secrets Act in connection with a cipher case. The charges included misusing and misplacing the diplomatic cable, which was based on conversations between Pakistan’s envoy to Washington and the US diplomat during the Khan-led government’s tenure in 2017.

The allegations were read out by Special Court Judge Zulqarnain, who stated that Imran Khan had “illegally retained and wrongly communicated” the cipher.

The charge sheet stated that the “said information/cipher” related to top secret information that was shared between two states, namely Pakistan and the United States, and further stated that the PTI chief used the cipher in a “prohibited place (jalsa)” and “wilfully communicated” the secret information to the participants against the “interests of the State of Pakistan.”

The state and complainant Yousuf Naseem Khokhar have been added as parties to the petition.

According to the petition, the trial court failed to meet the legal criteria in this regard and charges could only be filed seven days after challan copies were distributed.

It argued that the PTI chief was indicted by the special court in a hurry and that the trial process was also rushed.

The petitioner claimed that the IHC had not given the special court any instructions to hear the matter every day and wrap up the trial quickly.

The petitioner claimed that “fundamental constitutional rights will be affected by proceedings with a hasty trial.”

It pleaded with the IHC to uphold the special court’s ruling from October 23 and stated that the trial proceedings could not advance in the absence of the key evidence, or cipher.

On judicial remand in the cipher case, Khan and Qureshi are currently being held at the Adiala jail.

According to the Official Secrets Act, the FIA detained the PTI chairman and vice chairman in August for allegedly misplacing and misusing secret documents for their own political gain.

On August 5, 2023, Khan was arrested following his sentencing to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case. He was first detained in Attock jail before being transferred to Adiala jail.

It is important to note that the PTI chairman’s sentence in the Toshakhana case was suspended by the IHC on August 29. However, he is still incarcerated as a result of his detention in the cipher case.

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