ISLAMABAD: On Saturday, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) filed a challan in the cipher case against Imran Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the vice chairman.
Asad Umar is not one of the accused in the FIA’s challan for the cipher case
In its challan, the agency claimed that the former prime minister and vice chairman had been found guilty in the case and asked the court to hold a trial and impose a sentence.
Asad Umar, the former PTI secretary-general, has not been included on the list of suspects, according to the sources. Azam Khan, formerly Imran Khan’s principal secretary, has been referred to as a “strong witness” in the case.
The sources added that the FIA also included Azam’s statements, which were documented under Sections 161 and 164, along with the challan and that the PTI leader had exploited the state secret by keeping the cipher to himself.
According to the sources, Khan had a copy of the encryption but did not give it back.
The FIA also included the address by Khan and Qureshi dated March 27. On that day, the former prime minister displayed a letter and said it was a fake from a foreign country that wanted his government overthrown.
In addition, the agency included a list of 28 witnesses on the challan after recording their testimony in accordance with Section 161.
According to further information from sources, the list of witnesses now includes the names of previous foreign secretaries Asad Majeed, Sohail Mehmood, and the then-assistant foreign secretary Faisal Niaz Tirmizi.
The PTI chairman and vice chairman’s legal detention in the cipher case was prolonged by the special court on September 26 to October 10.
The PTI chairman and vice chairman were both charged by the FIA last month for allegedly misplacing and abusing a confidential document for their own political gain.
Following the conclusion of the investigation No. 111/2023 dated October 5, 2022, filed in the CTW, FIA Islamabad, it was discovered that Imran Ahmad Khan Niazi, a former prime minister, and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a former foreign minister, were involved in communicating information from the secret classified document (Cipher Telegram received from Parep. Washington dated March 7, 2022 to Secretary Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to the other members of their inner circle.
Both leaders were subsequently detained in connection with the case investigation, and a special court was set up in accordance with the Official Secrets Act to hear the case’s defendants.
Ciphergate
The controversy started on March 27, 2022, when Khan waved a letter in front of the crowd while speaking at a public rally. Khan claimed that the letter was a cipher from a foreign country that had conspired with his political rivals to overthrow the PTI government. This was less than a month before his ouster in April 2022.
He kept the letter’s contents a secret and avoided mentioning the country it was addressed to. But a few days later, he claimed that the United States was plotting to have him removed and that Donald Lu, the assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia affairs, was behind it.
The message concerned Majeed’s encounter with Lu as a former Pakistani ambassador to the US.
According to the former prime minister, who claimed to be deciphering the cipher, “all will be forgiven for Pakistan if Imran Khan is removed from power.”
The National Security Committee (NSC) then addressed the situation on March 31 and decided to “strongly demarche” the US for its “blatant interference in the internal affairs of Pakistan.”
When the NSC met later, after he had been removed from office, Shehbaz Sharif, the prime minister at the time, declared that there was no proof of a foreign conspiracy in the cable.
The former prime minister, then-federal minister Asad Umar, and then-principal secretary Azam are purportedly heard discussing the US cipher and how to utilize it to their benefit in the two audio releases that stunned the nation after these events and took the internet by storm.
The federal cabinet took notice of the situation on September 30 and established a committee to investigate the information contained in the audio leaks.
The FIA was given the case in October after the cabinet approved taking legal action against the former prime minister.
When the FIA was assigned the assignment to investigate the case, it summoned Khan, Umar, and other party leaders. However, the PTI leader contested the summons and obtained a court order granting a delay.
In July of this year, the Lahore High Court (LHC) recalled the stay order against Khan’s call-up notice from the FIA.
