Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and party senior leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been sentenced to 10 years each in prison in the cipher case.
The verdict was pronounced by Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqernain of the Official Secrets Act special court after conducting proceedings in Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi on Tuesday.
The judge said the prosecution had enough solid evidence to prove the crime.
The judge has been holding hearings of the case in Adiala Jail since it started last year.
Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood were present in the courtroom when the decision was pronounced.
It is pertinent to note that both the accused are already imprisoned in the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi in the case.
Earlier in the day, Imran Khan challenged in Islamabad High Court (IHC) the appointment of state defense counsels in the cipher case.
A petition on behalf of the PTI founder chairman was submitted to the IHC, praying the court to strike down the trial court’s January 26 decision.
The high court was also requested to declare null and void the trial court’s proceedings following the appointment of state defense counsels.
Earlier, PTI senior leader Barrister Gohar Khan had announced that the party will challenge in Islamabad High Court the cipher case proceedings against Imran Khan which is being conducted at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.
In a post uploaded on the X platform early Tuesday, Gohar Khan said the case proceedings will be challenged on behalf of the PTI founder chairman.
What is the cipher case?
The controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Khan — less than a month before his ouster in April 2022 — while addressing a public rally waved a letter before the crowd, claiming that it was a cipher from a foreign nation that had conspired with his political rivals to have PTI government overthrown.
He did not reveal the contents of the letter nor did he mention the name of the nation it came from. But a few days later, he accused the United States of conspiring against him and alleged that Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal.
The cipher was about former Pakistan ambassador to the US Majeed’s meeting with Lu.
The former prime minister, claiming that he was reading contents from the cipher, said that “all will be forgiven for Pakistan if Imran Khan is removed from power”.
Then on March 31, the National Security Committee (NSC) took up the matter and decided to issue a “strong demarche” to the US for its “blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan”.
Later, after his removal, then-prime minister Shehbaz Sharif convened a meeting of the NSC, which concluded that it had found no evidence of a foreign conspiracy in the cable.
In the two audio leaks that took the internet by storm and shocked the public after these events, the former prime minister, then-federal minister Asad Umar, and then-principle secretary Azam could allegedly be heard discussing the US cipher and how to use it to their advantage.
On September 30, the federal cabinet took notice of the matter and constituted a committee to probe the contents of the audio leaks.
In October, the cabinet gave the green signal to initiate action against the former prime minister and handed over the case to the FIA.
