No mention of ‘threat’ or ‘conspiracy’ in missive

Ex-envoy to US among witness recorded statements in cypher case

RAWALPINDI:

A special court established under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) on Tuesday completed recording statements of the prosecution witnesses in the cipher case against former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

During the hearing, presided over by special court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain, six witnesses, including Faisal Tirmizi, Farrukh Abbas, Akbar Durrani and Asad Majeed, who as the then Pakistani ambassador to the United States orginated the cipher, gave their statements.

The court, while conducting the hearing inside the Adiala Jail, completed recording statements of all the 25 prosecution witnesses in the case.

Now, the cross-examination of these witnesses would begin from the next hearing of the case. Both Imran and Qureshi were present in the courtroom.

Majeed, who retired as the foreign secretary last year, apprised the court that there was no reference to the words “threat” or “conspiracy” in the cipher.

He added that the cipher affair was a setback for the Pakistan-US relations.

The cipher case related to a paper, Imran had waved at a public rally in Islamabad in March 2021, while facing a no-confidence motion in the National Assembly, was eventually lost by him in April.

Imran had termed the cipher a foreign conspiracy to topple his government.

The cipher was sent by Majeed, who served as the ambassador to the US from January 2019 to March 2022, following his meeting with US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Donald Lu, who was invited to a working lunch.

Majeed apprised the court that on March 7, 2021 Lu was invited to a working lunch at the Pakistan House in Washington.

He added that a cipher telegram of the communication at the meeting was sent to the then foreign secretary in Pakistan.

Read more: Imran reveals Qureshi found out about cypher by ‘chance’

“It was a pre-arranged meeting in which Deputy Head of Mission and Defence Attache were also present,” he said, adding that both sides knew about the minutes of the meeting and the cipher telegram reported that conversation.

There was no reference to the words “threat” or “conspiracy” in the secret cipher telegram, he said.

He apprised the court that he was also invited to a meeting of the National Security Committee, where he proposed to issue demarche to the US envoy.

The cipher affair dealt a blow to Pakistan-US relations, he said.

Also during the hearing, there were heated exchanges between Qureshi and Prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi. Qureshi complained that despite assurances from the judge, his nomination papers for NA-150, NA-151 and PP-218 were rejected.

However, when Abbasi interrupted, Qureshi got angry, asking him as to why he was intervening in the middle of his talk.

The judge asked Qureshi to remain calm.

Qureshi then submitted an application against rejection of his nomination papers and the judge assured him of looking into the matter.