The judge of the Official Secrets Act court remarked that the proceedings in the cipher case against former PTI chairman Imran Khan and Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi will be conducted on merit.
The judge made these remarks during the hearing of the cipher case in Adiala Jail on Saturday. The proceedings were then adjourned till Monday.
During the hearing, former foreign minister Qureshi said they should be told whether the trial was being conducted under the Official Secrets Act 1923 or 2023, adding that there were never any security threats to him as he used to travel in his car all by himself.
When his production orders were issued, the jail administration violated them and didn’t produce him, Qureshi maintained, adding that the administration didn’t submit the record on his bail application.
He further said that attempts were being made to conduct a trial in this case that has no basis. Even the president of Pakistan disowns the amendments to the Official Secrets Act, he said, and requested that President Alvi be summoned to court.
Qureshi said the president should take an oath in court and tell whether he approved this amendment or not. Imran
Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqernain told the suspect that one of their objections had been cleared as the media and the public were present in the hearing today. “You were not produced in court due to security concerns,” he told Qureshi.
“Your and Imran Khan’s trial cannot be separated, as this case is interlinked,” he added.
The judge remarked that no provision of the recently amended Act applied to this case, adding the trial was being conducted under sections 9 and 5 of the Official Secrets Act.
“We will proceed on merit,” Judge Hasnat said.
Former prime minister Imran Khan told the court that he ordered an inquiry into the cipher being the prime minister. He claimed that efforts were being made to save some powerful people who were involved in the case.
“We have been locked up like goats, while Nawaz Sharif has been brought here from abroad,” Khan added.
Speaking to the media outside the court, Imran Khan’s lawyer, Umair Niazi, said only three journalists were allowed to witness the proceedings, while over 50 stood outside the court.
He claimed the former PTI chief also said that an open trial was not being conducted in this case.
Another lawyer, Intizar Panjotha, told the media that today's proceedings did not by any means constitute an open trial. He called the proceedings a violation of the orders of the Islamabad High Court.
The members of the public sitting during the trial were planted, he alleged, adding that they informed the court that they did not know these people.
He said they asked the court to at least allow the foreign media to witness the proceedings. The process was completed even before the media representatives arrived, he added. “A jail trial can never be an open trial,” he remarked.
The lawyer quoted Imran Khan as saying that they were completely innocent; that's why they were demanding an open trial. “We will go to court soon against the jail trial,” Panjotha added, and said 150 people can sit in the hall where the proceedings took place.
