ISLAMABAD: The lawyer of PTI chief Imran Khan has challenged the appointment of an anti-terrorism court judge as presiding officer of the special court for cipher case trial in jail under the Official Secrets Act, before a division bench of the Islamabad High Court.

Barrister Salman Akram Raja argued before the IHC bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Arbab Mohammad Tahir that the appointment of Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain was ‘unconstitutional’, because the law ministry notified it without prior consultation with the IHC chief justice.

This ‘anomaly’ was pointed out when the division bench began hearing an intra-court appeal of the PTI chairman against the decision of the IHC chief justice that had validated both the appointment as well as Mr Khan’s jail trial.

Party’s core committee alleges chairman is being ‘slow poisoned’ in prison

Barrister Salman Akram said the law ministry was not authorised to select a judge, as their nomination was only a prerogative of the chief justice of a high court.

When Justice Aurangzeb noted that this point was not raised earlier before a single bench, Barrister Sal­man argued that an application aga­inst the appointment had been filed before a single bench but it was dismissed.

To corroborate his argument regarding the appointment, the PTI chairman’s lawyer pointed out that even the tenure of an accountability judge, Mohammad Bashir, was extended with the consent of the high court.

After hearing the initial argument of the defence lawyer, the court issued a notice to the law ministry with a direction to depute the officer not less than the grade of a joint secretary for assistance in the matter.

Further hearing has been adjourned till Thursday.

Witness testimony deferred

Also on Tuesday, the special court deferred recording of statement of prosecution witnesses who had handled the ‘cipher’ in the foreign ministry and PM Office.

The cipher controversy hit headlines for the first time when former prime minister Imran Khan in a public address alleged that a diplomatic cipher was a proof of the alleged conspiracy behind the toppling of the PTI government.

Ten witnesses including Imran Sajjad, Aqeel Haider, Shamoon Qaiser, M. Afzal, Nadir Khan, Iqra Ashraf, Farrukh Abbas, Haseeb bin Aziz, Shabbir and Khushnood appeared before the court during the jail trial.

Meanwhile, the same court allowed the defence lawyer to read the ‘confidential’ evidence and meet detained PTI leaders Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi for discussion before the start of formal proceedings. The court adjourned the hearing till Nov 7.

‘Slow poison’

On the other hand, PTI’s media wing issued a statement reiterating the claim that Imran Khan was being ‘slow poisoned’ in jail.

The party said it called an emergency meeting of the core committee to discuss the issue of Mr Khan being subjected to slow poisoning and announced that the committee would discuss the information shared by Mr Khan with his legal team and a detailed handout would be issued soon.

PTI spokesperson Raoof Hasan confirmed to Dawn that a core committee meeting was held on Tuesday.

According to the party, the meeting was held over Zoom, but it was decided not to share any information with the media for the time being.

Later, the party shared details on social media and posted a statement on X (formerly Twitter).

Mr Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, and his lawyers have expressed concerns in the past that he could be slow poisoned through food in jail, urging the court to allow him the facility to have homemade food.

Similar apprehensions about the poisoning of PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif in prison had surfaced under the PTI regime.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2023