Ten-year imprisonment for Imran, Qureshi in cypher case

Rawalpindi: The Official Secret Act Court Tuesday pronounced the 10-year imprisonment for Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and Vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi each in cypher case filed against them.

According to the details, the Special Court judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain  pronounced the decision of cypher case against Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi.

Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood were present in the court room when the decision was pronounced.

During the hearing, the judge said that your lawyers are not present, you were provided with the State Defense Council, on this the lawyers defense said that they will cross-examine.

The judge told the lawyers clearly that you have mistrusted me.

Questionnaire 342 was given to Shah Mehmood Qureshi and founder PTI, on which both accused said that their lawyers are not present, how will we record the statement, during the hearing.

Later, the court recorded PTI founder Imran Khan's 342 statement, in which he said: “The cypher had come to my office, but the military secretary was responsible for its security. When military secretary was told to inquire, he said that he had no clue about cypher”.

The court, after recording the statement of 342 of Imran Khan and giving the decision of the case after a brief hearing, said that Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood are sentenced to 10 years of hard labor in the cypher case.

The judge delivered a brief verbal judgment on the case.

Notably, earlier Imran Khan had challenged the appointment of government defense lawyers in the Islamabad High Court in the cypher case.

What is cypher case?

Former Chairman PTI Imran Khan had created a conspiracy narrative against his government based on the messages or cyphers of the Pakistani ambassador to the US, in which Khan had claimed that the US had a hand in the overthrow of his government. However, the PTI government's position regarding the cypher has been denied in the meeting of the National Security Committee.

Apart from this, an audio leak of Imran Khan and his former secretary Azam Khan regarding the cipher was revealed, in which Imran Khan was heard saying that 'now we have only to play, not to name US, just play this. Not naming the US, just playon top of the fact that this date already existed. T which Azam Khan replied, ‘I was thinking that a meeting should be held over this cypher’.

After that, the federal cabinet entrusted the investigation of the matter to the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

Azam Khan was the principal secretary of the then Prime Minister Imran Khan during the PTI government and was considered very close to the Prime Minister.

Regarding the cypher, former Director General (DG) Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Lt. Gen. Babar Iftikhar said that an attempt was made to dramatize the cipher and rumors and false news were spread with the aim of gaining political advantage.