Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi are cleared by IHC in the Cipher case
Imran Khan, the founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the party’s leader, were cleared by the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday in the Cipher case.
While it considered the arguments of the imprisoned former prime minister Imran and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the court suspended their ten-year sentence.
The verdict was announced by Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Chief Justice Amir Farooq.
Imran and Qureshi were sentenced to ten years in prison by the special court constituted under the Official Secrets Act on January 30, in connection with the well-known cipher case.
The remarks made by Imran and Qureshi at a public gathering in Islamabad on March 27, 2022, “appear to be political in nature,” according to a March 19 statement from the IHC.
The appeals are heard by a division bench that consists of Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Chief Justice Aamer Farooq of the IHC.
Imran and Qureshi were accused in the case of unlawfully holding the secret document, revealing sensitive information to the public, and manipulating it for personal gain, according to the PTI’s attorney in court.
Nevertheless, he added, “not even the special court judge [who found the PTI leaders guilty] was shown the said diplomatic cipher.”
“If the information has been twisted, then it should be known what the information was,” said Chief Justice Farooq.
According to Barrister Safdar, the PTI leaders were charged with possessing and abusing classified material for personal gain. In this instance, nevertheless, the prosecution was unable to establish a connection between the purported offense and disclosing to foreign powers information on the armed forces and other sensitive sectors.
“What was written in the cipher?” asked Justice Aurangzeb.
“I haven’t seen the cipher, so I can’t tell what is written in it,” the lawyer retorted. He said that neither the text nor the cipher code had been made public.
“According to some, the PTI founder has made everything public; however, there are other claims that if the cypher is revealed, it will eventually come to light.”
The court inquired as to what Washington was communicating through the cypher. It stated that whoever sent the message needed to have identified the specifics that, if they ended up in India’s hands, might jeopardize our security. The bench observed that the material provided to the court contained nothing out of the ordinary.
The FIA prosecutor informed the judge that they needed permission from the court to make arguments regarding the appeal’s maintainability.
The bench announced that it would render a decision simultaneously regarding the appeals’ merit and maintainability.
Barrister Salman Safdar, Imran Khan’s attorney, argued before the IHC during the subsequent hearing that filing the cypher case solely against his client was an “act of retaliation” because other parties had withheld the diplomatic cable copies until it was filed.
According to Safdar, there had not been a fair trial under Article 10A. The attorney informed the judge that the diplomatic cable was kept “secret” and was not shown to the investigation officer (IO).
The bench noted that after everyone had left the courtroom, the judge could have issued an order under the Official Secrets Act requiring the document to be shown.
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