ISLAMABAD: A special court on Wednesday extended former prime minister Imran Khan’s judicial remand in a case involving a confidential diplomatic cable to September 26 after the country’s law ministry approved a prison trial in District Jail, Attock, by issuing a notification a day earlier.
Khan is facing a case under the Official Secrets Act of 1923 which was registered against him and some of his close aides last month and related to a diplomatic dispatch called cipher by a former Pakistani ambassador in Washington to the foreign ministry of the country in Islamabad. The ex-premier said the content of the cable proved a US conspiracy to topple his government in a no-trust vote held in April of last year.
While the US has denied being involved in any such conspiracy, Pakistani authorities accused Khan of compromising the secret communication system with its diplomatic missions abroad by misusing the document and sharing classified information with the public.
A special court was subsequently formed to hold Khan’s in-camera trial in the Attock jail where he has remained in prison since his arrest in a separate corruption case on August 5.
“Imran Khan’s judicial remand in the cipher case has been extended till September 26,” Naeem Haider Panjutha, the spokesperson of the former prime minister on legal affairs, said in a brief social media post.
He wrote separately the judge had assured Khan’s legal team of hearing his bail application on Thursday, adding that the court take a decision on the matter after hearing arguments from both sides.
Earlier, Pakistan’s law ministry said in a notification on Tuesday it had no objection on conducting Khan’s trial in jail due to security reasons.
However, the ex-PM’s legal team has already challenged his prison trial in the Islamabad High Court which reserved its judgment on the matter a day earlier.
The special court also conducted a hearing in the cipher case on August 30, extending the former prime minister’s judicial remand until September 13 to investigate him on charges of leaking state secrets.
His lawyers said after the previous hearing the case had nothing to do with the Official Secrets Act and the court should conduct its proceedings with full access to the media and lawyers.
They added that the said legal provision was only applicable to military personnel who revealed a state secret or compromised national security in other ways.
