Daily Times

A special court established under the Official Secrets Act on Tuesday deferred the indictment of former premier Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cipher case till today (December 13). Imran and Qureshi were initially indicted in the case on Oct 23. Both had pleaded not guilty. The trial was being held at Adiala Jail and four witnesses had alre­a­dy recorded their statements, with the fifth being cross-examined when an Islamabad High Court division bench termed the government’s notification for a jail trial “erroneous” and scrap­ped the entire proceedings. As a result of the judgment, the special court started a fresh trial. Last month, Special Court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqar­nain had ruled that the trial proceedings would continue at the Adiala Jail but in an open court. During the previous hearing, the court had decided to indict the PTI leaders today. Meanwhile, PTI lawyer Senator Babar Awan had said Imran wanted an “ex-army general and a US envoy” to be summoned by the special court. On Monday, the former premier challenged the process of his indictment in the cipher case in the IHC, urging it to halt the proceedings till deciding on this petition. He claimed that the proceedings of Dec 4 were “liable to set aside” as they were “carried out unauthorisedly and are illegal, unlawful, improper, incorrect”.