In a fresh development in the cipher case, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) has observed that the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has nothing to prove that jailed ex-PM Imran Khan retained the confidential diplomatic cable and it went missing from his custody.
An IHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb questioned whether or not there was any record available with the prosecuting agency to prove that the jailed former premier retained the cipher. On Tuesday, the bench restarted hearing appeals filed by ex-PM and his then foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi against their conviction in the cipher case.
In the cipher case, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister of Pakistan Khan was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment along with ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
Reportedly, at a public rally in Islamabad, Khan showed a piece of paper (allegedly a copy of a diplomatic cipher) claiming it as proof of a conspiracy against his government by a foreign power, referring to US diplomat Donald Lu, who has been at the centre of the cipher controversy.
Just two weeks before the ouster of the PTI government in April 2022, Khan had brandished the cipher paper.
Earlier, a foreign ministry report presented by defence counsel Barrister Salman Safdar to the IHC containing details of the cipher’s distribution suggested that nearly every recipient of the cipher returned the secret document after a case was registered against Khan, Dawn News reported.
While special prosecutor Hamid Ali Shah described the cipher movement from the foreign ministry to the PM Office, Justice Farooq asked: “Is there any record of the cipher’s movement that it was handed over to the prime minister by the principal secretary?”
Shah said that Azam Khan (the then-principal secretary) testified before the court that the cipher was handed over to Khan and was never returned.
“We believe it’s hearsay,” remarked the chief justice, adding that there was a possibility that ex-PM had told the secretary to return the cipher.
Justice Aurangzeb stated that politicians make such statements to pander to the crowd.
He asked the counsel of the state to inform the court of what happened with the First Information Report registered over Azam Khan’s alleged abduction and directed the counsel to present a challan or discharge report in the FIR by May 2.
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