RAWALPINDI (Dunya News) – A special court on Tuesday deferred the indictment of former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cipher case till (Wednesday). Both the PTI leaders face accusations that they leaked a diplomatic cable.
Judge of the special court, set up under the Official Secrets Act, Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain, heard the case in Adiala jail where both the former PTI chief and Qureshi have been incarcerated.
Today’s hearing was attended by family members of the PTI leaders. The FIA’s special prosecutors Shah Khawar and Zulfikar Abbas Naqvi were also present in the courtroom while Barrister Salman Safdar appeared as the counsel of former PM and Barrister Taimur Malik as Qureshi’s lawyer.
The hearing was subsequently adjourned till Dec 13 as the date for the PTI leaders’ indictment.
During the previous hearing, the former chairman and the ex-foreign minister Qureshi, who were produced before the court. The court ordered to provide the copies of challan with the accused and decided to frame charges against them on next hearing.
It may be noted that the trial was held in the Adiala jail in disregard to Islamabad High Court’s order for open trial citing security threats to the former PTI chief. The Interior Ministry had issued a notification of holding trial in the jail during the previous hearing.
Cipher case
In the cipher case, the former PTI chief faces allegations that he violated the Official Secrets Act when he disclosed a secret diplomatic cable, called the cipher. This was sent by Pakistan's embassy in Washington last year in March. The former PM reportedly lost possession of the diplomatic cable later.
The former PTI chief and Qureshi had claimed that the cable had a threat from the US to topple the PTI government which was then in power in Pakistan. The leaders were indicted on October 23 but the fresh indictment has been necessitated by an order from Supreme Court of Pakistan.
Both the PTI chief and Shah Mahmood Qureshi have pleaded not guilty to charges against them.