In Islamabad, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected a petition from former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Thursday, seeking a suspension of the proceedings in the ongoing cypher trial. The hearing was presided over by Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, who issued a notice for December 20 to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).
Imran’s lawyer, Sikandar Zulqarnain Saleem, challenged the trial court’s December 4 order during the hearing. Justice Aurangzeb questioned the absence of the notification for the jail trial, leading to the lawyer asserting that it was the government’s responsibility to determine the trial venue, not the judge’s.
Justice Aurangzeb emphasized that the judge had discretion to select a prison facility for the trial but stressed that it should be conducted in an open court. In response to Imran’s counsel’s request to halt the cypher case proceedings until the next hearing, the judge stated that it would be considered once the report was received.
After Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi were re-indicted in the cypher case on December 13, the PTI’s lawyer announced plans to challenge the indictment process in court, citing a lack of transparency and impulsiveness in the hearing.
The court had ruled that both Imran, in his capacity as prime minister, and Qureshi, as foreign minister, violated the Official Secrets Act. The charge sheet outlined that both accused publicly displayed a classified document during a rally on March 27, 2022, exploiting it for personal gain, deliberately harming the nation’s reputation, security, and diplomatic affairs.
Imran’s lawyer, Salman Safdar, reiterated that no indictment procedure was carried out in court on the given day. Additionally, senior lawyers Sardar Latif Khosa, Aitzaz Ahsan, and Salman Akram Raja separately addressed the media, expressing their dissatisfaction with not being allowed to attend the jail trial. Khosa argued for media personnel to be allowed inside the courtroom, stating that journalists are confined to a glass room 50 feet away during the proceedings, while Raja added that everyone has the right to hear the case.
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