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Pakistan: Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan has been charged in the Cipher case. A special court in Pakistan on Monday found former Prime Minister Imran Khan guilty in a cipher case related to violating the country’s privacy laws. Along with Khan, former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was also convicted. Khan used the document to create the story that his government had been overthrown as a result of a foreign conspiracy.
The hearing of the case was held at the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi by special court judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain. According to local News, Khan and Qureshi have pleaded not guilty to the charges. Imran (71) was arrested in August this year after he was booked for violating the Official Secrets Act by leaking a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) sent by Pakistan’s embassy in Washington in March last year.
According to a report by the government’s Federal Investigation Agency, the case relates to a cable that Khan presented as evidence that he was outed as part of a US conspiracy backed by the powerful military establishment. The claims have been denied by the United States and Pakistan Army. Last year, Khan alleged that the US orchestrated a plan to remove him from office and brandished a cipher at a public rally to back his claims. The US has time and again denied such allegations, terming them “categorically false”.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief was allegedly “euphoric” after seeing the cipher and decided to use it to build an “anti-establishment narrative” on the back of a “blunder” committed by the US, according to Khan’s then-principal secretary Azam Khan. The court was earlier set to indict Khan on October 17 but it delayed it after Khan’s lawyers objected that he was not provided with the copies of chargesheet.
The cipher case concerns a diplomatic cable, which reportedly went missing from Khan’s possession. Khan had repeatedly said before and after the no-confidence motion against him last year that the cipher pointed to a conspiracy to remove him from the prime minister’s office. The cipher copy was retained by Imran Khan and the next day (March 10) when he asked for it, Imran Khan replied that he had misplaced it,” the confession statement said, adding that the PTI chief did not return the original cipher despite repeated requests.
Khan has been in jail due to cipher case since the Islamabad High Court on August 29 granted him bail in the Toshakhana case in which he was arrested on August 5 from Lahore. More than 150 cases have been registered against Khan since ouster from power in April last year.On September 30, 2022, the federal cabinet of Pakistan under Shehbaz Sharif took notice of the matter and constituted a committee to probe the contents of the audio leaks. The FIA summoned Khan, Umar and other leaders of the party, but the PTI chief secured a stay order against such summons.
