The special court hearing the cypher case on Thursday ordered Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan and Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi to be presented at the Federal Judicial Complex (FJC) in Islamabad on November 28.
The directives were issued by Judge Abul Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain.
Former foreign minister Qureshi’s counsel, Ali Bhukari and Khalid Yusuf were also present in the court.
During the hearing, the judge asked for a copy of the Islamabad High Court's order, which was presented by court staff. He then ordered that the former premier and former foreign minister be presented in court on November 28.
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The cypher
The cypher case pertains to a document waved by Imran, then the prime minister, at a public rally in March last year, terming it evidence of a foreign conspiracy behind the no-confidence motion he faced at that time. The motion was carried a few weeks later and Imran’s government ended.
Imran had filed a separate petition with the IHC challenging the FIA's request to hold the case's proceedings inside the jail premises. However, the high court disposed of the plea last week after observing that an in-camera trial was in the PTI chief's favour, asking him to approach the trial court regarding the matter.
Earlier this week, the IHC declared the proceedings of PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s trial conducted in jail in the cypher case so far as null and void. The appointment of the judge to the special court formed under the Official Secrets Act was held to be valid.
An IHC division bench, comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, was hearing Imran’s intra-court appeal against a single-member bench’s decision to approve his jail trial in the cypher case and the appointment of the judge to the special court formed under the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
Approving the maintainability of the appeal, the court declared that the notification issued by the law ministry on August 29 — which read that the Law and Justice Division had “no objection” to PTI chairman’s trial in the cypher case being held at Attock jail — was without lawful authority and no legal effect “for want of an order by the appropriate government and fulfillment of requirements provided in Section 352 of the CrPC [Code of Criminal Procedure] as well as Rule 3 in Part-A of Chapter-1 in Volume-III of the Rules and Orders of the Lahore High Court”.
In its short order, the court also declared the law ministry’s notifications about Imran’s jail trial issued on September 12, September 25, October 3, and October 13 to be “without lawful authority and no legal effect”.
It added that the law ministry’s notifications issued on November 13 and November 15 after decisions made by the cabinet were “of no legal consequence”.
The short order read that the November 15 notification could not be given a “retrospective effect”.
“Consequently, the proceedings with effect from August 29 and the trial conducted … in jail premises in a manner that cannot be termed as an open trial stand vitiated,” the order read.
Read the full story at the express tribune website.
