<\/p>\n
The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued a notice to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on a petition moved by former prime minister Imran Khan challenging in-camera proceedings of the cipher trial at Adiala Jail.<\/p>\n
The former premier, in his plea<\/a> filed a day ago, had challenged his trial in jail and subsequent developments, including the framing of charges<\/a> and a gag order<\/a> on the media.<\/p>\n The Special Court (Official Secrets Act) had begun the cipher trial afresh last week at the Adiala district jail after Imran and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi were indicted<\/a> for a second time in the case on Dec 13.<\/p>\n The cipher case pertains to a diplomatic document<\/a> that the Federal Investigation Agency\u2019s charge sheet alleges was never returned<\/a> by Imran. The PTI has long held<\/a> that the document contained a threat from the United States to oust Imran as prime minister.<\/p>\n The former premier and his aide Qureshi, who is also behind bars, were first indicted<\/a> in the case on Oct 23. Both had pleaded not guilty. The trial was being held at Adiala Jail and four witnesses had alre\u00ada\u00addy recorded<\/a> their statements when the IHC termed the government\u2019s notification for a jail trial \u201cerroneous\u201d and scrap\u00adped<\/a> the entire proceedings.<\/p>\n The IHC had endorsed Imran\u2019s indictment, disposing of his plea against the same, but had also instructed the special court judge to ensure a \u201cfair trial\u201d.<\/p>\n On Dec 20, the IHC issued a detailed judgement<\/a> explaining reasons for scrapping the earlier round of proceedings of the special court due to a lack of transparency and openness. The court linked the open court proceedings with the independence of the judicial system.<\/p>\n Today, Imran\u2019s legal counsel Barrister Salman Akram Raja appeared in court as Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb began hearing the petition. Additional Attorney General Munawar Iqbal Duggal also in attendance.<\/p>\n At the outset, Raja contended that the prosecution had levelled a single allegation and did not provide any explanation to support their demand.<\/p>\n He highlighted that the special court had rejected bail for former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cipher case and instructed that the trial be completed in for weeks.<\/p>\n Here, Justice Aurangzeb questioned whether the stipulated four weeks were indeed granted for trial completion, seeking clarification from the additional attorney general.<\/p>\n \u201cWe do not give a period of four weeks even in simple cases,\u201d the judge remarked.<\/p>\n For his part, Imran\u2019s counsel emphasised that IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq had stated in his verdict that the trial must be finalised within four weeks. \u201cThe trial court is conducting daily proceedings in the case,\u201d he further said.<\/p>\n \u201cIs the judge suggesting that the indictment, if it has occurred, should not be disclosed to the public?\u201d Justice Aurangzeb inquired.<\/p>\n In his response, Imran\u2019s counsel said, \u201cThe trial court judge has ordered that no information regarding the case be disclosed or discussed.\u201d He added that the judge had specifically directed that relatives of the suspect should refrain from discussing the proceedings anywhere.<\/p>\n Raja added that the trial court, in its verdict, referred to this as a \u201cdirection case\u201d.<\/p>\n At that, the judge sought clarification on the meaning of a \u201cdirection case\u201d. Justice Aurangzeb subsequently summoned the attorney general on Friday.<\/p>\n During the hearing, Imran\u2019s counsel also formally requested the court to grant a stay in the case. However, the court did not immediately accept the plea and issued a notice to the FIA to submit its response on the matter.<\/p>\n Justice Aurangzeb asserted that the court would prefer to hear the attorney general\u2019s statement on the matter as well. The hearing was later adjourned till Friday.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday issued a notice to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on a petition moved by former prime minister Imran Khan challenging in-camera proceedings of the cipher trial at Adiala Jail. The former premier, in his plea filed a day ago, had challenged his trial in jail and subsequent developments, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":38071,"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\/12\/21123027e0c14dc.jpg?r=132007","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-38070","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\/38070","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=38070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The hearing<\/h2>\n