Islamabad: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday announced its reserved verdict that proceedings of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan’s bail plea in cipher case will take place in an open court.
In earlier hearing, FIA Special Prosecutor Shah Khawar told the court that since the in-camera proceeding of Cipher case was already going on in the trial court, the bail application should also be processed in-camera in the High Court because there is sensitive information in documents that cannot be made public.
The Chief Justice IHC Aamir Farooq announced a verdict that court reserved earlier this week on Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) plea to conduct in-camera hearing on the PTI chief’s bail application in the cipher case.
In the verdict today, the IHC said open court hearing on the bail petition will be held on October 9, however, the arguments by lawyers on documents regarded as sensitive will be heard in-camera.
Last week, IHC Chief Justice Aamir Farooq ruled that today’s hearing on the PTI chief’s bail plea in the cipher case will take place in an open court.
The court stated this in a two-page written order in response to the prosecution's request for in-camera proceedings.
Following this, the FIA, a day earlier, filed a formal petition for an in-camera hearing. Meanwhile, PTI reiterated its demand for an open trial and said Mr Khan’s legal team would oppose the FIA’s request.
Moreover, FIA filed a challan (charge sheet) on Saturday in special court, declaring Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi as principal accused.
The former principal secretary to PM Azam Khan and former federal minister Asad Umar, have also been named in the challan as accused but won’t be tried.
The FIA cited 27 witnesses in the challan and invoked sections in charge sheet, including Sections 5 and 9 of the Official Secrets Act, which may lead to death sentence or two to 14 years’ imprisonment if proven.
In the previous hearing on September 26, the special court extended Imran Khan and Qureshi’s judicial remand in the cipher case till October 10.