A special court in Pakistan has decided to postpone the indictment of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his close associate Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cipher case until October 23. This case revolves around an undisclosed diplomatic document, which Imran Khan, the chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), used to accuse his political adversaries of orchestrating his removal from power in April the previous year. This document allegedly disappeared from Khan's possession, with his party asserting that it contained a threat from the United States to depose him from office.
The government established a special court to conduct the closed-door proceedings at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail after the Islamabad High Court rejected Imran Khan's request to hold the trial outside of the prison. The hearing was overseen by Judge Abual Hasanat Zulqernain, who adjourned it until October 23 and announced that both Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister Qureshi would be indicted on that date.
During the hearing, Barrister Salman Safdar and Khalid Yousuf Chaudhry acted as counsel for the 71-year-old Imran Khan, while Shah Khawar, a special prosecutor for the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), represented the prosecution. Qureshi's wife and daughter also attended the proceedings, although it remains unconfirmed whether they were allowed to participate. Shah Khawar informed the media that the indictment proceedings would transpire on the upcoming Monday, October 23, at which point charges will be framed, and the cipher case's formal trial will commence.
The court had previously scheduled the indictment for Tuesday, but this did not occur, as the court only distributed copies of the charge sheet among the suspects during the hearing. Lawyer Sher Afzal Marwat conveyed that the indictment would proceed during the subsequent hearing.
To provide some context, Imran Khan was ousted from his position through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. Following this, he was incarcerated on August 5 of the current year after an Islamabad court sentenced him to three years in prison in the Toshakhana case. He was held in the Attock District Jail to serve his prison term. Subsequently, the Islamabad High Court suspended his sentence, but he was then arrested in connection with the cipher case.
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