IHC to hear Imran’s bail plea in cypher case tomorrow

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Saturday fixed for hearing Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and former prime minister Imran Khan’s bail plea in the cipher case on Monday (tomorrow).

The IHC registrar issued the cause list for next week's hearings, which included the PTI chief's bail application.
IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq will hear the case.

The court has issued a notice to the FIA seeking its arguments.

Apart from this, the IHC had reserved its decision on the transfer request of the former prime minister from the Attock jail to Adiala Jail, but has now listed the case for a re-hearing. Justice Farooq will be hearing this petition on Sept 25 as well.

The court had reserved its verdict a few days ago after the completion of arguments.

It now scheduled the hearing for further clarification of certain legal points.

Earlier, a special court created to hear cases under the Official Secrets Act had rejected Imran’s bail application.

Bail application

The former prime minister, in his petition filed through his lawyers Barrister Salman Safdar and Khalid Mehmood, requested the court to release him on bail from Attock jail, where he is currently incarcerated.

The PTI chief stated that the prosecution had filed a malicious and fabricated case, arguing that the special court made to hear cases related to the Official Secrets Act "completely ignored several of the prosecution's irregularities and contradictions".

A written judgment by special court judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain stated that the cipher case was a top-secret case, and the prosecution had “irrefutable evidence against Imran Khan and [PTI leader] Shah Mahmood Qureshi to prove their connection to the case".

The court noted, “Sufficient incriminating evidence is available on record to connect the accused with the instant case.”

A seven-page written order stated, “[The] record further depicts that there appear reasonable grounds for believing that the accused/petitioners are guilty of the offence [under] sections 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 in the light of the content of the instant FIR.

“Moreover, there are also reasonable grounds for believing that the accused/petitioners have committed a non-bailable offence. The record which is in colour of various documents is sufficient for the purpose of discarding the bails of both the accused.”

Cipher saga

On March 27, 2022, before facing a vote of no-confidence, former premier Imran Khan had taken out a piece of paper – allegedly a diplomatic cipher – from his pocket and waved it at a public gathering in Islamabad, claiming it was evidence of an "international conspiracy" to topple his government.

The FIA initiated its probe into the so-called “cipher-gate” on July 19 this year after the PML-N led coalition government announced an official inquiry against the former PM and his close associates for violating the Official Secrets Act, 1923 over illegal possession of a classified document.

The agency arrested Qureshi, who had served as the country’s foreign minister during the PTI’s rule, on Aug 19.
An FIA Counter Terrorism Wing team interrogated Imran on Aug 26 inside the Attock jail in connection with the case. The agency announced Imran's arrest on Aug 29.