Ex-PM Khan’s court-ordered public trial scheduled to begin today in state secrets case

ISLAMABAD: The jail trial of former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, with media and members of the public allowed access for the first time, will begin today, Saturday, at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail in a case in which the ex-premier is accused of leaking state secrets.
A special court established to hear what has popularly come to be called the cipher case had been conducting the trial inside the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi city since Khan was indicted on the charges last month and after the government said he could not be moved to a courtroom for hearings due to security reasons. However, the Islamabad High Court ruled last week that holding Khan’s trial inside jail premises on security concerns was illegal, and ordered it restarted in an open court.
The trial began afresh on Friday, but Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a close aide who has also been indicted in the case, were not produced before the special court when the hearing began because a law ministry notification sanctioning their trial had not been submitted until well into the hearing.
The proceedings broke for recess and when they resumed, the judge said the law ministry’s notification had arrived and adjourned the hearing till Saturday.
“Another blatant attempt to slow the process when [law ministry] notification could have been issued yesterday,” a PTI media manager told reporters on Friday.
Khan, who is the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, is being held at Adiala jail where he is serving a three-year sentence in a separate case in which he was convicted in August of failing to disclose assets earned from the sale of state gifts while he was PM from 2018-2022.
Khan is also accused in a number of other cases, including the cipher case, which relates to an alleged diplomatic correspondence between Washington and Islamabad that Khan says was proof that his ouster as PM in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022 was part of a US conspiracy to remove him. Washington has repeatedly denied Khan’s accusations.
Khan, arguably the most popular politician in the country, has not been seen in public since he was arrested in August. Prior to that, he regularly addressed his millions of followers via social media and held massive public rallies and protest marches.
Khan had also been appearing in courts prior to his August arrest protected by his personal security guards. But he has also sought exemptions from personal appearances, often citing threats to his safety.
The former premier says all cases against him are “politically motivated” and aimed at keeping him and his party out of politics ahead of general elections, due in February.