On Thursday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) lifted its stay order, allowing the resumption of the in-camera cipher case trial against the founder of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb presided over the hearing of the petition challenging the in-camera trial in the cipher case. The court had previously issued a stay order on December 28, temporarily halting the cipher case trial against the former prime minister until January 11.
During the proceedings, Salman Akram Raja, the counsel for the PTI founder, argued that the government had acknowledged the ‘wrong’ nature of the December 14 order. He urged the court to nullify the proceedings of the cipher case after December 14.
In response, the Attorney General of Pakistan (AGP), Anwar Mansoor Khan, assured the IHC that the in-camera trial of the PTI founder in the cipher case would resume from the beginning.
Following these arguments, the high court decided to revoke its earlier stay order, allowing the continuation of the in-camera cipher case trial.
Cipher case
In the Cipher Case, a case has been registered against the former Prime Minister and former Foreign Minister under sections 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, along with section 34 of the PPC. They are accused of wrongfully communicating and using official secret information and illegally retaining a cipher telegram (an official secret document) with malicious intent.
The former PM’s aide Muhammad Azam Khan, former federal minister Asad Umar, and other associates’ roles will be determined during the investigations. The allegations state that Imran, Qureshi, and their associates communicated information from a secret classified document (cipher telegram received from Parep Washington dated March 7, 2022, to the Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to unauthorized persons, twisting facts to achieve personal gains in a manner prejudicial to state security.
A clandestine meeting allegedly took place at Banigala on March 28, 2022, where they conspired to misuse the cipher contents for nefarious designs. Imran, allegedly with malicious intent, directed the former principal secretary Azam Khan to prepare the minutes of the meeting by manipulating the cipher message’s contents for his vested interest at the expense of national safety.
The numbered and accountable copy of the cipher telegram sent to the PM Office was deliberately kept in the former PM’s custody and was never returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The accused Imran still illegally possesses and retains the cipher telegram, compromising the entire cipher security system and the secret communication method of Pakistani missions abroad.
