Daily Times

LAHORE: The Lahore High Court (LHC) on Tuesday overruled an office objection to a petition filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, against the summons by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in the cipher audio leak scandal, and ordered to fix the petition for hearing.

The LHC registrar office had objected to the maintainability of the petition on the ground of its territorial jurisdiction. Justice Asjad Javed Ghural took up the petition as an objection case and overruled the objection after hearing arguments of the petitioner’s counsel. Imran Khan’s counsel Salman Safdar argued before the court that the FIA was a federal institution and the LHC had jurisdiction to hear the matter.

The PTI chairman, through the petition, submitted that the FIA had launched an inquiry into the alleged audio leak pertaining to the diplomatic cipher and summoned him for recording a statement on December 6.

He submitted that the inquiry had already been challenged in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. He pleaded with the court to set aside the impugned call-up notice and quash the inquiry.