The Islamabad High Court has ordered a special court to hold proceedings on the Cypher Case against Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi till Thursday. The case was filed against Imran Khan for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act by disclosing a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) sent by the country’s embassy in Washington in March last year. The former prime minister has been at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi in the cipher case.
Earlier this month, the court declared that Khan and Qureshi would be indicted during the next hearing on October 17, which would mark the official start of the trial. Khan had challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) the trial inside the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi where he was shifted on September 26 from the Attock jail in Punjab province. Disposing of his plea opposing the in-prison proceedings, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq directed Khan to approach the trial court if he has any security concerns about the jail trial .
The Islamabad High Court has directed former prime minister Imran Khan to approach the special court regarding any security concerns on his in-prison trial in the cipher case, even as it observed that there is no apparent malice in conducting the hearing in jail, considering the security concerns. The court observed that there was no apparent malice in holding the trial in prison and given security concerns, a trial in prison would be in favor of the former prime minister.