Accepting the prosecution’s request it had made under the Official Secrets Act’s section 14A, judge Abual Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain of the Official Secrets Act’s special court on Thursday said that the next hearing of the US cipher case to be held tomorrow would be in-camera, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
Earlier in the morning, the judge had reserved the verdict in the case.
The judge further said that family members of former prime minister and ex-PTI chairman Imran Khan and his associate Shah Mehmood Qureshi would be allowed inside the courtroom.
Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) Special Prosecutor Rizwan Abbasi, who had requested the court to keep proceedings of the trial secret, argued that since the case had been registered under the Official Secrets Act; therefore holding in-camera trial was necessary.
He further said that the circumstances and events surrounding the case also rendered in-camera trial necessary. “When the US cipher was itself secret, therefore the case’s hearing should also be held behind closed doors,” he opined.
The prosecutor went on to say that charges had been framed and now only witnesses had to record their statements. “Therefore, we want the secrecy to be maintained.”
Speaking on the occasion, Ali Bukhari, Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s lawyer, said previously too he had challenged the notification issued for in-camera jail trial in the Islamabad High Court, which then declared it null and void and ordered that the trial should be held in an open court.
“We were not aware that the both Imran and Qureshi had been indicted in the case. We came to know it later through media,” he informed.
Reporter: Irshad Qureshi