Special court to hold in-camera trial of Imran, Qureshi
CIPHER CASE: COURT GRANTS PERMISSION TO FIA
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RAWALPINDI: A special court established under the Official Secrets Act 2023 yesterday approved the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) plea to conduct an in-camera hearing of former Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cipher case.
Special court Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain announced the reserved verdict in the case. The court said that the family members would be given access to the courtroom during the hearing.
The FIA had filed a petition under Section 14(a) seeking an in-camera hearing of Khan and Qureshi. The development comes after the former prime minister and PTI's vice-chairman were indicted by the special court for the second time yesterday.
Both the leaders were indicted in the case on October 23 and pleaded not guilty to their involvement in the offence related to the alleged misuse of diplomatic cable for political purposes. Following Khan and Qureshi’s indictment, the regular trial of the cipher case on the charges of leaking state secrets was being held in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi.
Last month, both leaders challenged their indictment in the case, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) declared their jail trial “null and void” while allowing their intra-court appeals in the case.
However, the federal cabinet yet again approved the summary of holding the jail trial of both politicians following which the trial continued, leading to the indictment of both Khan and Qureshi on Wednesday.
Published in The Daily National Courier, December, 15 2023
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