ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued notices to the federation, interior and foreign ministries and Federal Investigating Agency (FIA) on a post-arrest bail plea of PTI chairman Imran Khan in the cipher case, a day after the Islamabad High Court declared the entire case proceedings illegal.

Justice Sardar Tariq Masood, who headed the three-judge SC bench also comprising Justice Yahya Afridi and Justice Ayesha A. Malik that took up the bail petition, referring to the IHC decision remarked that it was witnessed for the first time that the defence side tried to get lacunae in the prosecution case ‘removed’ through court when such anomalies were usually highlighted in appeals.

Imran Khan has been facing a case registered against him under the Official Secrets Act (OSA) 1923 for making the public contents of a confidential diplomatic cable. On Oct 16, the IHC had rejected the post-arrest bail plea.

The counsel for Imran Khan, Salman Safdar, who moved the bail plea, contended that the cipher was furnished in the first meeting of the National Security Committee (NSC) and thereafter a protest was laun­ched with the US embassy in Islamabad.

Asad Umar’s bail plea in 2014 Islamabad sit-in violence case disposed of

He said that in the second NSC meeting, which was held on April 24, 2022 after the removal of Imran Khan’s government, no allegation was ever made as if the cipher had gone missing. Had the cipher gone missing, it should have been mentioned in the April 24 meeting, he said.

The counsel contended that Azam Khan, the then principal secretary to the prime minister, was the in-charge of the PM Office when the cipher was received.

Earlier, Azam Khan was an accused in this case, but after recording his statement under Section 161 of CrPC, he became a prosecution witness, the counsel reminded.

Besides, he said, the FIR was registered after a delay of seven months and that too after the removal of Imran Khan which indicated mala fide on part of the interior ministry.

The petition pleaded that the grant of bail was a remedy, primarily vested in the discretion of the courts that must be exercised with the utmost care and caution, as it constituted a fundamental facet of the judicial power.

The petition contended that the Oct 16 IHC order engaged in a detailed evaluation of the matter, which was not in consonance with the traditional approach in bail matters.

It alleged that the initiation of the cipher case, orchestrated at the behest of the interior secretary and executed by the FIA, represented yet an­­o­t­her endeavour to subject the petitioner to political victimisation.

Bail plea disposed of

A local court on Wednesday disposed of the bail petition of former PTI leader Asad Umar in a case related to violence during a 2014 sit-in at Islamabad’s Constitution Avenue after police assured the court of not taking him into custody.

The former PTI general secretary was nominated in an FIR registered at the Secretariat police station in connection with the violence during the sit-in.

Mr Umar, along with other PTI leaders, filed applied for the pre-arrest bail before the court of additional district and sessions judge Abdul Ghafoor Kakar.

The judge disposed of the petition after the Secretariat police informed the court that they would not arrest Mr Umar in this case.

Malik Asad also contributed to this report

Published in Dawn, November 23rd, 2023