A special court sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to 10 years’ imprisonment in the cipher case.
Judge Abu Alhasnaat Zulqurnain announced the verdict in a hearing of the special court in Adiala Jail on Tuesday. The case accuses Khan and Qureshi of illegally retaining and communicating a classified diplomatic cable sent by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington.
Khan’s sisters and Qureshi’s children also came to the jail for the hearing. Earlier reports had said that the court is likely to record Khan and Qureshi’s statements under section 342 of the criminal procedure code.
On Monday, 12 witnesses had been examined by state defence counsel taking the number of total witnesses examined up to 25. Only four of these witnesses were examined by the defence’s own lawyers.
The court had been a scene of loud disagreements in recent days after the judge appointed state defence counsels for Imran and Qureshi.
The PTI leaders said that there lawyers were not being let inside the Adiala Jail. However, the judge said that their lawyers had refused to appear.
Imran Khan has not been brought out of prison since his arrest on August 5. Although he gained bail in the Toshakhana case in which he was originally arrested, he was arrested in the cipher case from prison.
Since then, he has not been brought to a single court hearing. The judge instead travelled to Adiala Jail where the trial was held. Khan had to go to court to get his family and members of the media to be allowed to see proceedings.
On the other hand, Imran Khan also approached the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday against the appointment of defence lawyers by the state.
Khan’s lawyers have also called for all proceedings of the court since the appointment of the state lawyers on January 26 to be declared void.
However, the decision of the case was announced soon after the petition was filed.
PTI has approached the IHC over the cipher case multiple times in the past and has even gotten favourable judgements regarding the jail trial.
