Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Saturday urged the special court conducting the cipher trial to summon President Dr Arif Alvi so he could testify before the court whether he had assented to changes in the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
The cipher trial proceedings against former prime minister Imran Khan and his aide Qureshi resumed at the Adiala jail as jail authorities prevented most media workers from attending the “open court” hearing.
The trial was being held at Adiala Jail and four witnesses had already recorded their statements, with the fifth being cross-examined when an Islamabad High Court division bench had termed the government’s notification for jail trial “erroneous” and scrapped the entire proceedings.
As a result of the judgement, the special court was to start a fresh trial now.
Meanwhile, PTI supremo Imran Khan, during the cipher case hearing at Adiala jail, claimed that the”powerful people” behind the cipher case were being protected.
“I ordered to initiate an inquiry into the matter when I was the prime minister,” said the PTI supremo during the cipher case hearing at Adiala jail.
The former premier added that he, along with his party leaders, are locked inside jails “like goats” while Pakistan Muslim League-N supremo Nawaz Sharif was brought back to Pakistan.
A special court, established under the Official Secrets Act 2023, held an open court hearing at Adiala jail, where Khan and the party’s Vice-Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi are incarcerated in the cipher case.
