The trial in the cipher case against Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi formally began on Friday. However, the statements of witnesses could not be recorded..

Judge Abu Alhasnaat Zulqurnain presided over hearings in Adiala Jail, where the Federal Invesitgation Agency was supposed to bring along five witnesses

However, the statements could not be recorded aftre PTI’s lawyers told the court that the matter of Imran Khan’s beil was still being heard in the Islamabad High Court.

FIA had submitted the names of 28 witnesses in their challan and had attached 161 statements from 27 of these.

Khan and Qureshi were indicted on Monday by the special court where both pleaded not guilty.

Charge Sheet

The charge sheet in the cipher case accuses Khan of illegally retaining and wrongly communicating the cipher.

It also charged the PTI chairman with revealing the contents of the secret document in a public rally which was a ‘prohibited’ place. The charge sheet said that Khan was not authorised to communicate the information in the document which was against the “interest” of Pakistan.

The charge sheet added that the contents of the cipher were “misused by Khan for his own interest at the cost of national security”.

It also charged Khan was “illegally keeping the document in his custody” which has compromised the entire security system of the state.

Qureshi has been charged with aiding and abetting Khan as foreign minister.

A guilty verdict under the Official Secrets Act could bring up to 14 years in prison or even a death sentence, lawyers say.