Pak court rejects Imran Khan’s pleas for bail, cancels FIR in cipher case

ISLAMABAD: In a major blow to Imran Khan, a top Pakistani court on Friday rejected petitions by the jailed former prime minister seeking post-arrest bail and the quashing of the FIR in the cipher case for allegedly leaking state secrets.

Khan, 71, was arrested in August after a case was filed against him for disclosing a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) sent by the country’s embassy in Washington in March last year. A special court in Pakistan on Monday indicted him along with his close ally ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the case.

Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, had approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) with the pleas for bail in the case as well as against the FIR which was registered by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in August.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq after the conclusion of the hearing had reserved judgment on October 16 which he announced on Friday.

The written verdict issued by the court declared both petitions as “without merit” and were “accordingly dismissed”, the Dawn newspaper reported.

“It is clarified that any observations, made hereinabove, are tentative in nature and shall not prejudice learned trial court during the trial,” the judgement emphasised.

On the matter of the plea seeking dismissal of the case, it stated that the petitioner had the “efficacious and alternate remedy by way of moving an appropriate application” under section 249-A (power of magistrate to acquit accused at any stage) of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

“Moreover, the petitioner is co-accused in the case and even if the arguments advanced for quashing of FIR on his behalf are accepted, FIR cannot be quashed in as much as there are other co-accused and there cannot be a partial quashing of FIR,” the verdict said, referring to the fact that FIR had named multiple people.