Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan seeks bail in Cipher case

Imran Khan/ File Photo

Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is currently in jail, has submitted a petition to the Supreme Court, requesting bail in the cipher case. He challenged the Islamabad High Court's previous rejection of his post-arrest bail pleas related to the case, stated a report in PTI.

According to the report, Khan (71), who was arrested in August following a case filed against him by the Federal Investigation Agency, was accused of disclosing a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) sent by the country's embassy in Washington in March last year.

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A special court in Pakistan had recently indicted Khan and his ally former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the case and adjourned the hearing until November 7 without recording the statements of ten witnesses, the report added.

Khan filed a bail plea in the Supreme Court after Islamabad HC rejected his previous petitions for bail and the plea seeking quashing of the First Information Report.

In the charge sheet filed by the FIA on September 30, sections 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923 were invoked. Conviction under these sections may lead to a death sentence or imprisonment ranging from two to fourteen years. The indictment took place on October 23, stated the report.

According to the report, Khan, who served as Pakistan's prime minister from August 2018 to April 2022, is accused of misusing the contents of the cipher to construct a narrative alleging that his government was ousted due to a foreign conspiracy involving the United States, a claim denied by Washington. The charge sheet also states that Qureshi "aided and abetted" Khan and is therefore equally liable for the act.

Imran Khan's government was removed from power on April 9, 2022, while the diplomatic cable in question was sent by the country's embassy in Washington in March of the same year.

Following the party's ouster from power in April 2022 and the subsequent violence in May, Khan and many of his party leaders have been entangled in numerous legal cases. Over 150 cases have been registered against Khan since his removal from power in April last year.

Imran Khan was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. He was incarcerated on August 5 this year after an Islamabad court sentenced him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case. Subsequently, his sentence was suspended by the Islamabad High Court. However, he was later arrested in the cipher case and remained on judicial remand at the Attock jail. He was subsequently transferred to the high-security Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.