PTI Chairman Imran Khan has challenged his indictment in the cipher case before the Islamabad High Court.
Imran has requested the court to declare the proceedings to indict him null and void. The petition was submitted in the high court through advocates Salman Safdar and Khalid Yousaf.
The complainant in the original cipher case, Interior Secretary Yousaf Naseem Khokhar, and the state of Pakistan have been made parties in the petition.
The trial court indicted Imran Khan in haste and wants to complete the trial in a rush, the petition maintained.
It further stated that by pursuing the trial in haste would affect the basic constitutional rights. The trial cannot proceed in the wake of the absence of the main evidence, the cipher telegraph, it stated.
The petition has requested for declaring the October 23 order of the Official Secrets Act court null and void, adding that under the law, charges can be framed seven days after the copies of the investigation report have been provided to the suspects.
The petition says the trial court did not consider the seven-day legal requirement. There was no order from the superior judiciary to conduct daily trials or wrap up the case early, it argued.
Meanwhile, IHC judge Justice Babar Sattar has recused himself from hearing Imran Khan’s petition to revive his bail pleas in the Toshakhana and Al-Qadir Trust cases of the NAB.
Now, a bench would be constituted to hear the PTI chief’s plea.
