ISLAMABAD / LAHORE: The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) will challenge the Special Court (Official Secrets Act) decision of conducting in-camera trial of ex-premier Imran Khan and foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cipher case, with a resumption of ban on attendance of reporters for media coverage.

Criticising the court order, PTI posted on its official X account, “A complete ban on reporting about the bogus cipher case. After still conducting the trial in a jail, this is yet another step that exposes reality of the case. A complete mockery of law in Pakistan.”

Sources in PTI’s core committee told Dawn that the decision to impose a ban on coverage of the cipher case will be challenged before the Islamabad High Court.

They said Barrister Salman Akram Raja would file the criminal review petition.

The lawyer had earlier challenged Mr Khan’s jail trial and the IHC finally scrapped the trial proceedings and remanded the matter back to the special court judge for de novo trial, with a direction to hold the proceeding in the open court.

ECP issued notice on Imran’s pleas against disqualification, intra-party polls

On Thursday, Judge Abual Hasnat Mohammad Zulqarnain had accepted the prosecution’s plea — moved under Section 14 of the Official Secrets Act — to exclude the general public from the hearing of the cipher case.

He also barred coverage of its proceedings on all mainstream media outlets, as well as the social media and only gave conditional app­roval to the family members of Mr Khan and Mr Qureshi to witness the trial, provided they did not share details of the court’s proceedings.

Notices on IK petitions

Also on Friday, a full bench of the Lahore High Court issued notices to the ECP on two petitions of ex-premier Khan challenging his five-year disqualification in Toshakhana case and the cancellation of PTI’s intra-party election held in 2022.

Barrister Senator Syed Ali Zafar represented the jailed former chairman of the PTI before the five-member LHC bench, headed by Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan and also comprising Justice Shams Mahmood Mirza, Justice Shahid Karim, Justice Shehram Sarwar Chaudhry and Justice Jawad Hassan.

At the outset, the LHC asked Barrister Zafar to address the point of LHC jurisdiction to hear the matter after an IHC decision of last week when Mr Khan’s application seeking withdrawal of his appeal against disqualification in order to enable him to pursue the matter in the LHC was rejected.

The counsel told the full bench that the petition against the disqualification needed to be decided at the earliest, as the next general elections were approaching fast. He urged the bench to issue notices to the respondents on the merits of the petitions.

An ECP director apprised the court that Advocate Shahzad Shaukat would represent the commission, though he was unavailable at that moment due to some unavoidable reasons.

Question of jurisdiction

While the court issued notices to the ECP on both petitions and adjourned the hearing for a date to be fixed later, the bench observed that the question of jurisdiction was crucial, even when notices were issued to the parties.

Justice Shujaat Hussain of the LHC on Dec 8 referred the petitions to the full bench that already was seized with an identical matter relating to the ECP proceedings against Mr Khan.

Mr Khan petitioned that the ECP ‘illegally’ de-seated him as an MNA from Mianwali’s NA-95 constituency and directed that a complaint be filed against him under the Elections Act, 2017, despite his clear explanations for Toshakhana gifts.

Alleging ‘malice’ and ‘ulterior’ motives, Mr Khan criticised the ECP for instigating baseless actions against him under Sections 167 and 173 of the Elections Act, 2017, before a session court in Islamabad. He said general elections were slated to be held on Feb 8, but the ECP denied his fundamental right to contest polls.

He asked the court to set aside his disqualification so that he could contest the upcoming general elections.

Published in Dawn, December 16th, 2023