‘No evidence that cipher was in Imran’s custody’

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ISLAMABAD: In a fresh twist in the cipher case, the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday observed that the Federal Investigation Age­ncy (FIA) has nothing on record to prove that former prime minister Imran Khan retained the confidential diplomatic cable and that it went missing from his possession.
The observation was made by an IHC division bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurang­zeb, which had resumed hearing appeals filed by Mr Khan and his foreign minister at the time, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, against their conviction in the cipher case. Earlier, defense counsel Barrister Salman Safdar had submitted a report of the foreign ministry to the IHC containing details of the cipher’s distribution. The report revealed that almost every recipient of the cipher, inc­l­u­ding the former army chief and the chief justice, returned the confidential document after a case was registered against Imran Khan. While special prosecutor Hamid Ali Shah was explaining the movement of cipher from the foreign ministry to the PM Office, Justice Farooq asked if there is any record available with FIA, the prosecuting agency, that proves Mr Khan retained the cipher.
“Is there any record of cipher’s movement that it was handed over to the prime minister by the principal secretary?”, asked the chief justice.
Source: Dawnnews.com