ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Tuesday issued a stay order against former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s prison trial on charges of mishandling a confidential diplomatic cable – or a cipher – and divulging its content for political purposes.

A special court was formed on August 21 under the Official Secrets Act, 1923, to adjudicate the matter by holding in-camera proceedings. Presided by an anti-terrorism court judge, Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain, the court carried out its first hearing on August 30 in a high-security prison in Punjab’s Attock district where Khan was already incarcerated after being convicted in a separate case involving the illegal sale of state gifts.

A day before the hearing, a notification was issued by the law ministry, saying that the interior ministry had apprised it of “security concerns” related to the trial and pointing out it had “no objection” for the proceedings to be held in prison.

Khan’s lawyers opposed the decision and submitted a request for an open hearing amid concerns that their client might not get justice if his trial was carried out in prison. Last month, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party also took the matter to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) where its plea was turned down by Chief Justice Aamir Farooq who said there was apparently no malice behind the government’s decision to hold the jail trial.

This prompted Khan’s legal team to file an intra-court appeal against the decision which led to Tuesday’s stay order.

“Islamabad High Court issues a stay order against [Khan’s] jail trial,” Naeem Haider Panjutha, the ex-premier’s spokesperson on legal affairs, said in a social media post. “Justice[s] Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb and Saman Rafat Sahiba heard the case.”

Khan is facing a slew of cases since his ouster from power in a parliamentary no-confidence vote last year in April, which he says are “politically motivated” and aimed at keeping him out of politics.

The diplomatic cable at the heart of the issue was first mentioned by him in March 2022 when he waved a letter at a public rally and claimed it was a cipher from a foreign nation calling for the end of his government, days before his removal from office.

The diplomatic dispatch had been scribbled by Pakistan’s then envoy to Washington after a conversation with a US State Department official who allegedly expressed objections to Khan’s policies and suggested that his continuity in office could strain bilateral relations between the two states.

The Islamabad High Court adjourned the hearing on Khan’s appeal against the prison trial until November 16 while seeking details of the circumstances that led to the decision of holding the trial in prison.