Cypher Case: IHC says decision about Imran Khan’s bail to take 3- day after arguments

On the emphasis of defence lawyers of former Prime Minister Imran Khan for his immediate bail in the Cypher Case during the hearing on Thursday, Islamabad High Court (IHC) Chief Justice Amir Farooq said that after the completion of the arguments, it will take two to three days for the decision.

According to the 24News HD TV channel, the IHC Chief Justice said that he will give as much time to the prosecution as he has given the defence lawyers in the case of Imran Khan’s bail.

The channel report said Imran Khan’s lawyer Barrister Salman Safdar completed his arguments in favour of the bail and raised several contradictions related to the cypher in the prosecution’s case.

Salman said this case does not come under the Official Secrets Act and Section 5 applies to the case of the Armed Forces.

He said this law deals with sharing information with the enemy and in this case no maps, no pictures and no national security material were leaked.

National security is where information is shared with enemy countries, he said adding that unfortunately, this law is being used for political opponents and the PTI chairman is a political prisoner.

He said it has been written in the FIR that the cypher has to be recovered and their allegations are that the cypher was kept and altered.

He said before today no action was taken against any Prime Minister and Foreign Minister under the Secret Act, it is a very disgraceful thing, this law is only for soldiers.

He raised a big question before the court that they [Interior Ministry] did not recover the cypher, so how did it come to know that it was tampered with?

He raised another valuable question before the CJ that the Ministry of Interior is the plaintiff in this case, why is not the Ministry of External Affairs and why was the FIR filed after waiting for 17 months? And, how can the Ministry of Interior be a party in this case?

He told the court that this matter was placed on four forums and later an FIR was registered. The issue was also discussed in the Cabinet meeting, National Security Committee meeting and the Supreme Court and this matter also went to the National Security Committee twice and the foreign diplomat was called to protest over its text, he added.

Salman Safdar said in the Suo Moto case, the whole issue of cypher was discussed and nowhere in the Supreme Court was it said that a criminal act had taken place while the National Security Committee meeting said that the language of the cypher was condemnable and protested against it.

He said Pakistan High Commission received the cypher from the US on March 7, 2022, and was declassified in the cabinet meeting on April 9, 2022, and sent to the Chief Justice, Speaker, and President.

He said it is their case that the cypher remained with former premier Imran Khan for 33 days from March 7 to April 11, 2022, and then Shehbaz Sharif came into power on April 11 and held a meeting on April 24, and surely he must have held a meeting on the cypher.

In September, the Cabinet told the FIA that the cypher was missing from the Prime Minister's House and FIA started an inquiry on this matter after six days, Salman added.

He said if the cypher was in the Prime Minister's house, is Shahbaz Sharif an accused in this case? He was involved in the investigation and took a statement.

He raised questions about why was the National Security Committee meeting held without a cypher and why are all these things not written in the FIR. He has included Azam Khan's statement even though he is named in the FIR.

He added that the court is aware of the fact that an FIR was registered on the disappearance of Azam Khan so what is the status of the statement of the co-accused, the courts have already written in their decisions.

He further said that maintaining records of the PM House is the responsibility of his office and if this criminal act was known to Azam Khan, why is he not the plaintiff in this case? While Azam Khan will be accused on August 15, Salman argued.

Barrister Salman Safdar also presented the FIR of Azam Khan's disappearance in the court.

Earlier, Special Prosecutor Raja Rizwan Abbasi raised the issue of providing copies during the trial in the jail. He said during the jail trial, the lawyers of Chairman PTI received copies but did not sign.

Abbasi told the court that the lawyers of the accused have said that their request for a jail hearing is pending. On this, the court said the decision on the petition against the jail hearing will come tomorrow or Monday.

The special prosecutor appealed to the court that it should hear these cases together which was not accepted as the Chief Justice said that the bail case is separate and has to be heard separately.

During the hearing, the Special Prosecutor of FIA presented an explanation regarding the trial challan in the cypher case and said there were instructions from the Ministry of Law to place the situation before the court that the Chairman PTI and Shah Mahmood Qureshi were provided copies of the challan and both the accused refused to sign the copies of the challan.

On this, the CJ said the trial has to run on its own, and the bail application has its own regulator.

The CJ queried the prosecutors that were the meeting minutes of the National Security Committee and the cabinet meeting minutes presented before the Supreme Court.

In reply, Special Prosecutor Zulfikar Naqvi told the court that only the press release came out, not the meeting minutes of the National Security Committee and cabinet meeting minutes as these are also classified but there were press releases before the Supreme Court.

On this occasion, the CJ also inquired if a prime minister, president, or governor can't show the official [secret] all their lives.

Absolutely whole life they cannot disclose the official secret, special prosecutor replied, adding that this is a secret document that you can't go back to, it wasn't declassified and it can't be.

Later, PTI Chairman Imran Khan’s second lawyer Niaz Ullah Khan Niazi started his arguments in favour of his client’s bail in the cypher case.

Reporter: Rozina Ali