Cipher Case: IHC not to hear case today

The cause list of all the cases, which Chief Justice of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) Justice Aamer Farooq was due to hear today, has been cancelled.

Consequently, the hearing of former prime minister and ex-PTI chairman Imran Khan’s petition against the appointment of state counsels in the US cipher case will not be held today.

It merits mention here that a trial court has already handed down 10-year imprisonment to Imran and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the case.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday challenged in Islamabad High Court the appointment of state defence lawyers for former prime minister Imran Khan in the ongoing cipher case proceedings being conducted at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

Read also: Toshakhana and Al-Qadir Trust Case: Jail trial upheld by IHC

A petition was filed in court on behalf of Imran Khan. It has sought to annul the Official Secrets Act special court’s January 26 decision, adding that the case proceedings after the appointment of the state counsel should also be declared null and void. 

The suspects’ counsel also pleaded that after the IHC declared the cipher trial null and void, the proceedings held since then are illegal. 

Talking to the media outside the court, Imran Khan’s lawyer Hamid Khan alleged that this was the worst trial in the history of Pakistan.