• Ex-PM, spouse ordered to refrain from criticising army and judiciary; media asked not to highlight ‘inflammatory remarks’
• Govt following ‘pre-partition’ protocols to protect confidential documents, IHC observes in cipher case

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Thursday ordered former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi to refrain from speaking against the establishment and the judiciary, and also asked the media not to highlight “political or inflammatory” statements made by the accused.

Judge Rana Nasir Javed, while disposing of a petition seeking a fair trial in the Al-Qadir Trust case, barred the PTI founder and his wife from speaking against “institutions”.

According to the court order, Imran Khan issued provocative political statements against senior officials of the state institutions, including the army and the judiciary, which “not only disrupt the judicial decorum but also tantamount to obstruct judicial functions such as the dispensation of justice”.

The court also asked the prosecution, the accused, and their defence counsel not to make political or inflammatory statements which may disrupt the decorum of the court.

The judge also asked journalists to refrain from “publishing political and inflammatory narratives targeting state institutions and officials” and adhere to the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (Pemra) guidelines, which prohibit discussing sub judice matters.

The former premier has been taking potshots at the establishment during his interactions with media persons in the courtroom. Recently, the temporary courtroom was restructured and the administration raised the height of the partition walls to nine feet.

Initially, there was no partition and the hall was divided into three parts; one reserved for Mr Khan and his legal team, the second for media persons and the third for the general public. Last Friday, the presiding judge directed jail authorities to remove unnecessary walls erected in the makeshift courtroom inside the jail.

Cipher case

During the hearing of the cipher case, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) observed the government was following “pre-partition” protocols to secure its confidential documents.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq passed these observations during the hearing of the appeals of former prime minister Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi against their conviction in the cipher case.

A division bench comprising CJ Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb resumed the hearing on the appeals. Special prosecutors of the FIA Hamid Ali Shah and Syed Zulfiqar Abbas Naqvi appeared before the court. Justice Farooq inquired how old were the codes for the cipher and auxiliary documents.

The lawyer responded that some of the documents were from 2003 and a few of dated back to the pre-partition era and amended in 1964. The booklet on cipher was updated in 2003, he said, asking the court to examine the case in the light of security protocols, physical possession of the classified cable, and statement of witnesses.

The bench asked whether Mr Qureshi was also facing the charges of misplacing the cipher and asked the prosecutor to explain the case in sequential order.

As he explained the requirements for keeping the document in secure custody, the prosecutor argued that Mr Khan did not return the copy. Justice Aurangzeb questioned if the prosecution took any action against those who did not return the cipher on time. The prosecutor replied that he would respond to this question at the next hearing. The court adjourned the hearing till April 30.

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2024