{"id":14759,"date":"2023-10-16T13:39:06","date_gmt":"2023-10-16T13:39:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/ihc-directs-imran-to-approach-special-court-against-jail-trial-2\/"},"modified":"2023-10-16T13:39:06","modified_gmt":"2023-10-16T13:39:06","slug":"ihc-directs-imran-to-approach-special-court-against-jail-trial-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/ihc-directs-imran-to-approach-special-court-against-jail-trial-2\/","title":{"rendered":"IHC directs Imran to approach special court against jail trial"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday directed PTI Chairman Imran Khan to approach the special court against his jail trial in the cipher case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The cipher case pertains to a diplomatic document<\/a> that reportedly<\/a> went missing from Imran\u2019s possession. The PTI alleges<\/a> that the document contained a threat from the United States to oust Khan from office.<\/p>\n

The PTI chief was convicted and sentenced<\/a> to three years in prison in the Toshakhana graft case on August 5, 2023. He was subsequently shifted to Attock jail, but the IHC later suspended his sentence<\/a>. However, Khan remained in jail<\/a> because he was on judicial remand in the cipher case.<\/p>\n

On September 25, the IHC accepted<\/a> Imran\u2019s petition to be shifted<\/a> to Adiala jail in Rawalpindi from Attock district jail.<\/p>\n

On September 30, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted a challan \u2014a charge sheet \u2014 in the Special Court established<\/a> under the Official Secrets Act, naming the former prime minister and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi as the principal accused<\/a> in the cipher case.<\/p>\n

Imran has filed several petitions in the IHC, including two seeking to stay his jail trial<\/a> and bail in the cipher case, another seeking to suspend<\/a> the Toshakhana verdict, and a third against his indictment<\/a> in the cipher case, which is set for October 17<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today, the IHC disposed of the plea against the holding of the cipher case trial in Adiala Jail, directing Imran to approach the special court instead for the same.<\/p>\n

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq announced the reserved verdict today.<\/p>\n

The verdict stated that the jail trial was \u201cin favour\u201d of the former premier keeping in mind security-related matters. \u201cThere is no ill will apparent on the matter of jail trial,\u201d it observed.<\/p>\n

The order recalled that Imran had voiced his reservations relating to his security \u201cnumerous times\u201d. \u201cIf the PTI chairman has reservations about the jail trial, he may approach the trial court,\u201d the order stated.<\/p>\n

Imran can be sentenced to life imprisonment, death in cipher case, IHC told<\/h2>\n

Separately, the IHC also heard the PTI chief\u2019s plea seeking bail in the cipher case. During the hearing, Special Prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi presented his arguments.<\/p>\n

At the outset, he said the federal government had approved the filing of the complaint against Imran through the interior secretary.<\/p>\n

According to Abbasi, there were two categories of cases in the Official Secrets Act: one that included punishment for or less than 10 years (bailable) and the other that had a prison sentence that exceeded 10 years (non-bailable). He said Imran was charged under the latter category.<\/p>\n

Here, Justice Farooq asked if information in the cipher could not be communicated further. \u201cIn one category you can, but not in the other,\u201d the prosecutor replied.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis cipher was top secret and hence could not be shared,\u201d he contended, claiming that the petitioner\u2019s lawyer did not provide the correct interpretation or definition of Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act<\/a> \u2014 which talks about \u201cwrongful communication of information\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe PTI chairman disclosed the information in the cipher to the public when he was not authorised to do so,\u201d Abbasi said.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the IHC CJ asked if there were any rules of practice or SOPs pertaining to a cipher.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe document has two categories of which one can be communicated while the other cannot be disclosed,\u201d the prosecutor replied. \u201cThis cipher falls under the second category.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that as the prime minister, Imran was not exempted from Article 248 (Protection for president, minister or governor) of the Constitution. \u201cIn the cipher case, the PTI chief can either be sentenced to life imprisonment or death,\u201d Abbasi said.<\/p>\n

He then listed the former officials whose statements were on record, adding that Azam Khan \u2014 principal secretary to Imran during his premiership \u2014 was a witness in the case. Abbasi went on to say that his primary witnesses in the case were Azam, Asad Majeed and Sohail Mehmood.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Justice Farooq said he wanted to understand the chain through which a cipher is sent and received, to which Abbasi said the chain was written in the statements.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is evident in the witnesses\u2019 statement that this was a secret classified document and such documents are not circulated,\u201d the prosecutor argued and then gave examples of similar cases from neighbouring India.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe challan has been submitted \u2026 what will you do keeping Imran under arrest?\u201d the IHC CJ asked.<\/p>\n

However, Abbasi contended: \u201cSurely someone will benefit if Pakistan\u2019s relations with superpower America are being affected by someone\u2019s statement.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that cipher was a document that couldn\u2019t even be shared with friends or family.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday directed PTI Chairman Imran Khan to approach the special court against his jail trial in the cipher case. The cipher case pertains to a diplomatic document that reportedly went missing from Imran\u2019s possession. The PTI alleges that the document contained a threat from the United States to oust […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14760,"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\/161404409b7cc7d.png?r=141641","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pakistan"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14759","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=14759"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14759\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}