Islamabad: The Islamabad High Court on Monday directed former prime minister Imran Khan to approach the special court regarding any security concerns on his in-prison trial in the cipher case, even as it observed that there is no apparent malice in conducting the hearing in jail, considering the security concerns.
The 71-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman has been at Adiala jail in Rawalpindi in the cipher case. Khan was arrested in August after a case was filed against him for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act by disclosing a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) sent by the country's embassy in Washington in March last year.
Earlier this month, the court declared that Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi would be indicted during the next hearing on October 17, which would mark the official start of the trial. Khan had challenged in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) the trial inside the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi where he was shifted on September 26 from the Attock jail in Punjab province.
Disposing of his plea opposing the in-prison proceedings, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq directed Khan to approach the trial court if he has any security concerns about the jail trial, the Express Tribune newspaper reported. At the same time, the court observed that there was no apparent malice in holding the trial in prison and given security concerns, a trial in prison would be in favour of the former prime minister.
Khan was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. He was incarcerated on August 5 this year, after an Islamabad court sentenced him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case. The PTI chief was lodged in the Attock District Jail to serve his prison term. Later, his sentence was suspended by the Islamabad High Court, but then he was arrested in the cipher case.
