An Islamabad sessions court granted the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) PTI leader Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s one-day physical remand in a case pertaining to a diplomatic cipher that reportedly went missing from ex-prime minister Imran Khan’s custody and which the PTI chief has for long presented as evidence of a “conspiracy” to remove him from the top office.

Qureshi, who has been booked in the case along with Imran under the Official Secrets Act, was arrested in Islamabad yesterday. Both of them have been accused of sharing the contents of the cipher with unauthorised persons to achieve ‘ulterior motives’.

Qureshi was presented before judicial magistrate Ihtasham Alam Khan today, who observed in the court order that the FIA had sought the PTI leader’s physical remand for 14 days “for the purpose of interrogation regarding the involved accused person and to be confronted with the relevant record, recovery and logical conclusion”.

The order stated that the judge heard arguments from both sides and noted that in cases registered under the secrets law, the jurisdiction of physical remand was with the special court constituted under the said act.

However, he said, Qureshi was presented in his court due to a public holiday today.

“Being the duty court, therefore, the remand of one day is granted subject to pre- and post-medical examination,” the judge ruled, directing the investigating officer to present Qureshi before the special court tomorrow (Monday) and request for his remand.

In a video shared by the PTI from today, Qureshi is seen speaking to media persons outside the court where he says: “I have not shared any document of secret nature with any unauthorised person. I have not compromised any code.”

The case

The case was registered against Qureshi and Imran after an American news outlet, The Intercept, rece­ntly published what was clai­med to be the diplomatic cable which had reportedly gone missing from Imran’s possession.

The first information report (FIR) was registered on the complaint of Ministry of Interior Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar on August 15 and surfaced after Qureshi’s arrest yesterday.

It invoked Sections 5 (wrongful communication of information) and 9 (attempt to commit or abet the commission of an offence under this Secrets Act) of the Official Secrets Act read with Section 34 (acts done by several persons in furtherance of common intention) of the Pakistan Penal Code (PPC).

According to the FIR, on March 7, 2022, the then-foreign secretary received a cipher dispatched from Washington. It said that a conclusion of a case registered with the FIA’s counter-terrorism department on Oct 5, 2022, transpired that former prime minister Imran Khan, ex-foreign minister Qureshi and their other associates “are involved in the communication of information contained in [the] secret classified document … to unauthorised persons (ie public at large)”.

The cipher, which US-based news website Intercept recently claimed to have obtained and published, was waved by former PM Imran at a public gathering days before his ouster from the top office as proof of a conspiracy to remove his government.

The FIR registered by the FIA accused Imran, Qureshi and their associates of sharing the information contained in the cipher “by twisting the facts to achieve their ulterior motives and personal gains in a manner prejudicial to the interests of state security”.

“They held a clandestine meeting at [Imran’s] Bani Gala [residence] on March 28, 2022 to conspire to misuse the contents of the cipher in order to accomplish their nefarious designs.

“The accused Imran Khan […] with malafide intention directed his then principal secretary Muhammad Azam Khan to prepare minutes (record notes) of the said clandestine meeting by manipulating the context of the cipher message to use it for his vested interest at the cost of national safety.”

The FIR further alleged that the numbered and accountable copy of the cipher sent to the PM’s Office was “deliberately” kept by then-premier Imran with “malafide intention” and was never returned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“The said cipher (an official secret document classified as such) is still in the illegal possession/ retention of the accused Imran Khan. The unauthorised retention and misuse of the cipher telegram by the accused persons compromised the entire cypher security system of the state and secret communication method of Pakistani missions abroad,” it said.

The FIR added: “These actions by the accused persons directly/ indirectly benefitted the interest of foreign powers and caused loss to the state of Pakistan.

“The competent authority has granted approval for the registration of the case. Therefore, at police station CTW FIA , Islamabad, prima facie, a case under Section 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act read with Section 34 of the PPC is registered against former PM Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi for wrongful communication/ use of official secret information and illegal retention of the cipher telegram (official secret document) with malafide intention, whereas as role of SPM Azam Khan, former federal minister Asad Umar and other associates involved will be ascertained during the coarse of investigations.”