Jail Trial Notification
ISLAMABAD: On Tuesday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) nullified the notification issued on August 29 for conducting the jail trial of former Prime Minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan in the cipher case, charging him with leaking state secrets. A special court had been conducting the trial in jail due to security concerns since Khan’s indictment last month.
Imran Khan, presently in Adiala jail, had filed an intra-court appeal against his jail trial, and the division bench, comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Riffat Imtiaz, allowed the appeal, declaring the law ministry’s notification “without lawful authority and no legal effect.”
The IHC stated that jail trials could be conducted in “exceptional circumstances” in accordance with the law, but the November 15 notification from the Ministry of Law and Justice, approving the jail trial, was deemed ineffective.
The court ruled that all notifications issued by the ministry regarding the jail trial lacked legal effect due to non-compliance with due procedure and requirements. Additionally, the designation of the special court judge for trying cases reported under the Official Secrets Act was deemed valid and lawful.
The controversy, known as “ciphergate,” emerged in March 2022 when Imran Khan waved a letter during a public rally, claiming it contained a cipher revealing a foreign conspiracy against his government.
The IHC’s decision indicates that while it hasn’t ruled out a jail trial, the adopted procedure was flawed, raising questions about security, witness safety, and confidentiality. The case involves allegations of a foreign conspiracy and a missing diplomatic cable, with Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi indicted under the Official Secrets Act in August.
