‘Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood have right to appeal in cipher case,’ says Islamabad High Court

Islamabad High Court (IHC) has ruled that the appeals of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi against their convictions in the cipher case are maintainable.

The court invited both the prosecution and defense counsel to present their arguments starting Monday.

Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb, comprising the IHC division bench, resumed the hearing on the appeals concerning Mr. Khan and Mr. Qureshi’s convictions and 10-year sentences each in the cipher case.

During the previous hearing, special prosecutor Hamid Ali Shah raised objections regarding the maintainability of the appeals filed by Mr. Khan and Mr. Qureshi. Mr. Shah highlighted that the Official Secrets Act, enacted in 1923, did not provide the right of appeal except during the trial proceeding. He contended that since the trial court had already convicted the two leaders, the conviction should be considered final, as there was no provision for the right of appeal.

However, Barrister Salman Safdar, representing Imram Khan, argued that if the law did not grant the right of appeal against conviction, the court should consider this as a case of first impression.

He emphasized that the former prime minister and former foreign minister were convicted under the law used to prosecute espionage suspects. Mr. Safdar pointed out that superior courts had ruled in numerous cases that convicts could not be left without a remedy.

He added that while the high treason case did not provide the right of appeal, the Criminal Law (Amendment) Act, 1976, designated the Supreme Court as the forum for appeal.

The bench ultimately concluded that the appeals were maintainable and decided to proceed with hearing the case on its merits.

Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood have been jailed for 10 years in a case where they were charged with leaking state secrets.

What is Cipher case

Cipher is a classified cable, which in this case, was sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022.

Immediately after his removal as prime minister in April 2022, Khan said that the United States had a hand in his removal. He also raised a paper during a jalsa and claimed it to be Cipher. Washington and the Pakistani military have denied his accusations. Khan later toned down his rhetoric against the US.

But a US-based news outlet, The Intercept, in August 2023 published what it claimed to be a “cipher” that hinted the US administration wanted to remove Khan from power. Khan maintains his ouster in April 2022 was orchestrated by the country’s powerful military and his political opponents.

The Intercept published purported details of a conversation between Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed Khan, and Donald Lu, the assistant secretary of state for the US Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, on March 7, 2022.

The conversation took place under two weeks after Khan visited Moscow, on the day Russia invaded Ukraine. In the exchange, Lu raised concerns about Khan’s visit to Russia and Pakistan’s neutral stance on the Ukraine war.

“I think if a no-confidence vote against the prime minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington,” Lu allegedly told Asad Majeed Khan, who sent the details of the conversation to Islamabad through a secret diplomatic cable.