CJ IHC Aamer Farooq rejects FIA’s petition to hold in-camera proceedings of Chairman PTI’s bail plea in the cypher case

ISLAMABAD/RAWALPINDI, Oct 04 (SABAH): The Islamabad High Court (IHC) rejected on Wednesday the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) petition to hold in-camera proceedings of ousted premier and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s bail plea in the cypher case.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq had reserved his decision on the FIA’s plea earlier this week.

Announcing the verdict, the court said that the matter will be heard before an open court. The documents which are to be kept confidential will remain so after consulting with the counsels, said CJ Aamer Farooq.

The court fixed the bail application for hearing on October 9.

The cypher case concerns a diplomatic cable, which reportedly went missing from Imran’s possession. His party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) had claimed that the cypher contained a threat from the United States to remove Imran from the Prime Minister’s Office.

Imran Khan was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. He has been arrested twice since, with the second arrest made on August 5, 2023, after a district and sessions court sentenced him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case. The sentence was later suspended by the IHC but it emerged that he had been sent on judicial remand in the cypher case. The PTI chief faces over 150 criminal cases.

On September 26, the judicial remand of Imran and former interior minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is also implicated in the cypher case, was extended till October 10.

On September 30, both the PTI leaders were declared principal accused by the FIA in its challan submitted before a special court established under the Official Secrets Act.

Earlier this week, the FIA had sought in-camera proceedings of the PTI chief’s bail plea in the cypher case arguing that an open court hearing could adversely affect Pakistan’s diplomatic relations with other countries.

Earlier on Wednesday, the federal body also sought a closed door trial but its request was rejected by the special court.

An in-camera trial of charges framed under a 100-year-old law – Official Secrets Act – cannot be held, said Imran Khan’s lawyer Salman Safdar earlier on Wednesday, terming the FIA’s request “unconstitutional”.

He was speaking to the media while a special court conducted hearing of the case inside Adiala jail premises.

The hearing was held amid stringent security outside the prison premises, where Imran Khan and Vice Chairman PTI Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi are currently incarcerated, Safdar stressed that if the trial is to be held, it must be held before the public.

The counsel said he spoke to the ousted premier briefly today and the latter prohibited his legal team from entering into “any kind of deal”. A more detailed conversation will be held with him tomorrow (Thursday), said Safdar.

He further said that charges under the Official Secrets Act are “serious”. The matter of the PTI chief’s arrest in this case was being kept secret and now attempts are being made to keep the trial secret as well, said Safdar, adding that this could not be.

The defence counsel stressed that the matter is pending before the high court and his team would appeal to the trial court to adjourn proceedings till it is decided on.

In a first, a special court set up inside the premises of the Adiala jail heard the cypher case against Imran Khan and Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Wednesday.

Judge Abul Hasnaat Muhammad Zulqarnain presided over the proceedings and directed the prosecution to provide copies of the case challan to the accused, who are both currently incarcerated in the same prison and were produced before the court by jail authorities, at the next hearing on October 9, 2023.

At the outset of the hearing, the Federal Investigation Agency’s prosecutor submitted a plea before the court seeking in-camera proceedings.

At this, the court observed that citizens were not present in the courtroom as it is since the trial was being conducted inside the prison.

Meanwhile, the court rejected the defence counsels’ plea to stay the proceedings.

The court observed that the bail pleas are yet to be heard in the high court and the same has reserved its verdict on the matter of in-camera proceedings.

There is no final decision by the high court hence the proceedings cannot be stayed, remarked the court.

Copies of the case challan were to be distributed to the accused on Wednesday but were not. The hearing was adjourned till October 9.

Also on Wednesday, Imran Khan, through Advocate Sher Afzal Khan Marwat, approached the IHC against the holding of the cipher case trial in Adiala Jail.

The application made the state a respondent in the case. Its title stated it was filed under section 151 (saving of inherent powers of Court) of the Code of Civil Procedure, 1908.

It urged the court to restrain the respondents from “issuing any order like the one dated Oct 3, 2023 or any order in future for holding trial of Mr Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi in cipher case in Adiala Jail”.

The plea cited the notification issued by the law ministry a day ago, which had allowed Imran’s trial in the cipher case to be held in the Adiala jail due to security reasons cited by the Interior Division.

The notification had stated that the Law and Justice Division had “no objection” to the jail trial of the accused “till his security clearance” was issued.

Imran’s application to the IHC recalled that the same matter was “debated/argued” before the IHC, which it said had to decide the jurisdiction or authority of the law ministry to issue the No-Objection Certificate (NOC) and “to construe as to whether the NOC could be deemed as a binding order” for the special court judge to shift the trial to Adiala Jail.

The plea argued that the “matter would be rendered infructuous” if the said notification was not suspect or if the respondents were not restrained from issuing an identical order in the future.