A Pakistan high court on Thursday has extended the stay against the jail trial of former prime minister Imran Khan in the cipher case until November 20. The Islamabad High Court bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz extended the stay during the hearing of 71-year-old Khan’s intra-court appeal against the jail trial. The appeal was filed against a single-member bench of the same court which last month upheld the trial of Khan in the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi where he has been incarcerated.
According to Khan’s PTI party, the IHC “extended the stay of the cipher case trial under official secret act till Monday, November 20”.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chairman is currently detained in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi on judicial remand. Khan’s close aide and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi (67) who was also arrested in the cipher case is imprisoned in the same jail. Khan and Qureshi have pleaded not guilty to the charges. The caretaker government has approved the jail trial of Khan and Qureshi in the case based on an alleged violation of the Official Secrets Act while dealing with a secret diplomatic cable by the Pakistan embassy in Washington in March 2022.