In the cipher case, which was heard at the Attock District Jail, a special court created under the Official Secrets Act extended Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s judicial remand until September 13, according to sources.
The decision was made in the case of the missing cipher, a secret government document that Khan had waved during a political rally prior to his impeachment last year. Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain arrived at the jail to conduct the hearing.
Following approval by the Law Ministry and amid security worries raised by the Interior Ministry, the case was heard at the Attock District Jail.
Khan has been imprisoned in the said jail since his conviction in the Toshakhana case on August 5 for failing to properly declare gifts he received while in office.
While the Islamabad High Court, a day earlier, overturned a lower court’s decision to jail him for three years with a Rs100,000 fine — a judgment that kept him from contesting upcoming elections, he remains behind bars due to his judicial remand in the cipher case till August 30.
According to sources, Khan’s five-person legal team, led by Advocate Salman Safdar, was present at the court hearing inside the prison.
The legal team for the PTI chief, which consists of Naeem Haider Panjotha, Salman Safdar, Intizar Panjotha, Ali Ijaz Buttar, and Umair Niazi, was initially denied permission to meet Khan but was later given access to the prison.
The police had earlier only permitted Safdar to enter the Attock jail premises.
On the other hand, one of Khan’s counsels, Buttar, questioned the former prime minister’s remand.
“We have many questions. When was the PTI chairman remanded? How was the remand made possible without telling the party chief and his lawyers?” he asked.
Qureshi to appear before special court
Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s two-day remand will end today, according to the sources, and he will then be produced at the courthouse in connection with the cipher case.
Babar Awan, a PTI leader and Qureshi’s attorney, will represent him in court.
Khan’s lawyers sense ‘manipulation’ in jail detention
According to the PTI chairman’s attorneys, a “manipulation of justice” has kept him imprisoned.
The deposed prime minister, who had been imprisoned in Attock Jail for the past three weeks after losing a no-confidence vote last year, was reportedly granted bail and will soon be released, according to his attorneys.
On Tuesday afternoon, they claimed Khan was still in custody as a result of an earlier, covert arrest made in connection with a claim that he had leaked the cipher.
A day earlier, one of his lawyers told reporters outside the prison, which was surrounded by patrolling police units, that Khan was “on judicial remand” and would appear before a special court in Islamabad on Wednesday.
“He was arrested prior to today’s court ruling. The exact date of his arrest remains unclear,” another lawyer, Gohar Khan, told AFP by phone.
Muhammad Shoaib Shaheen added that “his legal team was kept in the dark and purposefully kept in the dark.”
He declared, “This amounts to a manipulation of justice.”
The PTI chairman has been involved in more than 200 cases since being ousted, and at least nine other cases, including three in anti-terrorism courts and six in district courts in Islamabad, in which bail was previously denied.
SOURCE: GEO NEWS
