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| PTI Chairman Imran Khan leaves after appearing in the Supreme Court in Islamabad on July 26 |
Islamabad Lahore | Imran Khan, the former prime minister and (PTI) chairman, has once again made headlines by admitting to misplacing the cipher. Khan, in his statement, revealed that he couldn't quite remember where he had kept it.
As reported by The News, the ex-prime minister, who faced a no-confidence motion in April last year leading to his removal from office, found himself under scrutiny during an interrogation within the confines of Attock jail. This inquiry was carried out by a three-member team from the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) Cybercrime Circle, with Deputy Director Ayyaz Khan at its helm.
The investigation team extensively questioned Khan regarding the missing cipher, and sources indicate that the PTI chief cooperated patiently throughout the hour-long inquiry. Khan, however, categorically denied that the piece of paper he had waved at a public gathering the previous year was, in fact, the missing cipher.
Elaborating further, Khan, according to these sources, emphasized that as the prime minister, he held the right to keep such a document in his possession. Yet, he was unable to provide a clear reason as to why he had mistakenly presented it as the cipher during a public event.
“It was, probably, the final session of the investigation into the cipher issue,” sources remarked, adding that individuals involved in the case were expected to convene for collaborative meetings to reach a conclusion.
These sources also indicated that the ongoing investigation into the cipher issue is anticipated to conclude within the upcoming week, and the findings will be formally submitted as a challan in a court of law.
In the midst of these developments, Khan took a bold step and challenged the rejection of nine bail applications in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on a Saturday. Following the refusal of bail requests pertaining to incidents including the May 9 riots, attacks on the Judicial Complex, and concerns over fake accounts, Khan filed nine applications through his lawyer, Salman Safdar, at the IHC.
Among these applications, six were turned down by a sessions court, while three faced rejection by an anti-terrorism court (ATC). The PTI lawyer, through petitions presented to the IHC, called for the nullification of the decisions rejecting the bail pleas.
Furthermore, Khan's legal team sought the IHC's guidance to prompt the trial courts to reassess the cases based on their merits. Additionally, they aimed to prevent law enforcement from arresting Khan, the PTI chairman, in relation to these nine cases.
Notably, Khan had previously taken a similar legal route, approaching the Supreme Court with a petition against IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq. The petition, presented on his behalf by his counsel Latif Khosa, invoked Article 186-A, advocating for the transfer of his cases from the IHC to either the Lahore or Peshawar high courts.
On a different note, the FIA stepped in and registered a case against PTI leaders for allegedly propagating a false campaign against state institutions on social media.
This case, initiated by the FIA Cybercrime Circle, targeted several individuals, including former finance minister Hammad Azhar, Musarrat Jamshed Cheema, former National Assembly deputy speaker Qasim Suri, former Punjab governor Omer Sarfraz Cheema, Senator Azam Swati, Istehkam-e-Pakistan Party’s Ali Zaidi, and former PTI senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry.
While the nominated individuals were summoned by the agency for investigation, none of them complied. Subsequently, the FIA carried out its independent investigations, eventually accumulating enough evidence to formally register a case against them, as per sources.
In the dynamic landscape of these events, Imran Khan's name continues to resound, with his words and actions taking center stage across multiple dimensions of this developing narrative.
