Islamabad: The lawyer representing former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan alleged on Saturday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is being “mentally tortured” in the Adiala Jail, ARY News reported.
PTI chief lawyer Naeem Hairder Panjotha alleged that Khan is kept in a small room of a C-class jail and is not allowed to come out of that room even for a walk.
Imran Khan's counsel expressed doubts about the quality of food being given to the former PM. Notably, the plea regarding the food issue is still pending in court.
Panjotha further questioned the in-camera hearing of cipher case and urged to proceed with the open trial of the case. He said the conviction of the PTI chairman in cipher is a part of a “campaign to keep the former PM out of politics”, ARY News reported.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rejected the challan submitted by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and demanded the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the cipher case.
In a statement issued on Saturday, the PTI spokesperson said that the challan submitted against party chairman and vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi was “meaningless and bogus as cipher case”.
In its challan, the FIA stated that Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi were found guilty in the matter. The agency requested the court to conduct their trial and sentence them in the case.
Former PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar's name has not been included in the list of accused, Geo News reported citing sources.
Azam Khan, Imran Khan's former principal secretary, has been named as a "strong witness" in the case, as per the report.
According to Geo News, the list of witnesses also includes former foreign secretaries Asad Majeed, Sohail Mehmood, and the then additional foreign secretary, Faisal Niaz Tirmizi.
On September 26, the special court extended the judicial remand of both Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi until October 10 in the cipher case. In August, the FIA had charged the PTI chairman and vice-chairman under the Official Secrets Act, alleging the improper handling and misuse of classified documents for their vested political interests.
Subsequently, Khan and Qureshi were arrested in connection with the probe into the case and a special court was formed under the Official Secrets Act to try the accused, Geo News reported.
The ciphergate controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran Khan just days before his ouster in April 2022 brandished a letter, claiming that it was a cipher from a foreign nation, which mentioned that his government should be removed from power, according to The News International report.
He did not reveal the contents of the letter nor mention the name of the nation that had sent it. But a few days later, he named the United States and said that Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal, The News International reported.
Imran Khan claimed that he was reading contents from the cipher, and said that "all will be forgiven for Pakistan if Imran Khan is removed from power".
The cipher case against Pakistan's former PM became serious after his principal secretary Azam Khan in a statement before a magistrate and the FIA said that the former PM had used the US cipher for his "political gains" and to avert a vote of no-confidence against him, The News International reported.