Former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has challenged his conviction and sentence in the cipher case in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

In his plea — filed through lawyers Ali Bukhari, Taimur Malik and Salman Safdar — Qureshi urged the IHC to set aside his conviction and acquit him of the charges of making state secrets public.

“There is not a speck of evidence that the appellant aided, abetted or facilitated the co-accused in any manner,” the petition argued. It highlighted that the foreign ministry was the “original recipient” of the cipher telegram but had been “kept at bay”.

It further argued that the complainants had failed to show how Qureshi or “any co-accused engaged in actions detrimental to national security or in aid of foreign powers”.