<\/p>\n
Former prime minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are to be indicted in the cipher case<\/a> on October 17, the special court decided on Monday.<\/p>\n The cipher case pertains to a diplomatic document<\/a> which reportedly<\/a> went missing from Imran\u2019s possession. The PTI alleges<\/a> that it contained a threat from the United States to oust the party chairman from office.<\/p>\n Imran was shifted to Attock jail on August 5, 2023, after a court sentenced<\/a> him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana graft case. Following the suspension<\/a> of the sentence, it had emerged<\/a> that he had been on judicial remand in the cipher case.<\/p>\n On September 26, both PTI leaders\u2019 judicial remand was extended until October 10 and as per the Islamabad High Court\u2019s orders<\/a>, the PTI chief was shifted<\/a> to Rawalpindi\u2019s Adiala jail from Attock district jail.<\/p>\n On September 30, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted a challan (charge sheet) in the Special Court established<\/a> under the Official Secrets Act, declaring Imran and Qureshi as principal accused<\/a> in the cipher case.<\/p>\n Imran has moved the IHC against his jail trial<\/a> in the cipher case as well as sought suspension<\/a> of the trial court\u2019s verdict<\/a> \u2014 not just sentence \u2014 in the Toshakhana case.<\/p>\n Today, Special Court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain presided over the cipher case hearing at the Adiala jail, where special prosecutor Zulfikar Naqvi and the FIA\u2019s team also appeared.<\/p>\n Qureshi\u2019s son and daughter, Zain and Mehr Bano, respectively, had also reached the jail prior to the hearing. However, it is not clear whether they attended the hearing.<\/p>\n The investigation officer appeared before the court along with copies of the challan while Barrister Salman Safdar was present as Imran\u2019s counsel.<\/p>\n During the hearing, the PTI chairman and the vice-chairman were presented before the court, where Imran briefly met his legal team from behind bars.<\/p>\n The special prosecutor informed the court that he could not provide the suspects with copies of the \u201centire case\u201d but would only give them the \u201cnecessary copies\u201d.<\/p>\n The copies of the challan in the case were then provided to Imran and Qureshi.<\/p>\n It was decided that both leaders would be indicted during the next hearing, which would be held on October 17, marking the official start of the trial.<\/p>\n Notices of summons would also be issued to the prosecution\u2019s side of witnesses in the next hearing.<\/p>\n Talking to the media outside the Adiala jail after the hearing, Safdar said Imran \u201cstrongly protested against the inhumane treatment\u201d meted out to him.<\/p>\n The lawyer highlighted that neither did the former premier \u201caccept the copies of the case nor signed on them\u201d. He said the team would challenge \u201ctoday\u2019s one-sided order of distributing copies\u201d of the challan.<\/p>\n He quoted the PTI chief as saying that he \u201conly wanted facilities as per the jail manual\u201d, adding that his client wanted \u201cmovement and exercise\u201d in the jailroom.<\/p>\n On Imran\u2019s health, Safdar said the PTI chairman was energetic but his \u201cblood pressure was high due to the injustices\u201d against him.<\/p>\n The PTI lawyer also objected to the jail trial \u201cunder the premise of security concerns\u201d and demanded an open hearing of the cipher case trial.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, the special court judge made a surprise visit today to the jailrooms where both PTI leaders are incarcerated.<\/p>\n Following the visit, Judge Zulqarnain told reporters that Imran complained about the lack of walking space in his cell. Therefore, a \u201c60-70-feet-space\u201d would be made for walking by demolishing a wall outside his cell, the judge added.<\/p>\n \u201cA bathroom is also connected with the cell. There is a clean environment,\u201d the judge said. He further said that Sher Afzal Marwat, one of Imran\u2019s lawyers, was the one to advise the ex-premier to not sign the copies of the challan.<\/p>\n While Judge Zulqarnain stated that Imran has \u201creceived the copies of the challan [but] is hesitating from signing them\u201d, he also noted that the lawyers have taken the copies with them.<\/p>\n \u201cI also asked whether he wanted the trial to be held or not. If there is no order issued by the high court, he will be indicted on October 17,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen he has taken the copies of the challan, not signing them is inappropriate,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Former prime minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi are to be indicted in the cipher case on October 17, the special court decided on Monday. The cipher case pertains to a diplomatic document which reportedly went missing from Imran\u2019s possession. The PTI alleges that it contained a threat from the United States […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":12454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/10\/091501265004cb6.png?r=150531","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12453","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12453"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12453\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12453"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12453"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12453"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Imran didn\u2019t sign challan copies: lawyer<\/h2>\n
Judge visits Imran, Qureshi in jail<\/h2>\n