Islamabad High Court (IHC) has reserved its decision on FIA's request for conducting an in-camera hearing on the bail plea of former premier and PTI Chairman Imran Khan in the cipher case. At the outset of the court proceedings on Monday, IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq remarked that it had to be decided whether the hearing would be in-camera or in open court. He said that the court would fix a date for rehearing the case.

At this juncture, lawyer Salman Safdar requested the court to fix the next hearing in a couple of days, on which the Chief Justice said that the office would schedule the case for hearing. FIA Prosecutor Shah Khawar Advocate appeared in the court and said that the trial could not be made public under the Official Secrets Act. He said today we were going to file an application in the trial court. The Chief Justice raised the question that the matter of the trial was different, could the bail hearing be held in-camera.  Speaking to the lawyers, the CJ said that he did not know about this. He asked the lawyers to see to it. He said the statement was to be made in the trial court, it was the trial court’s jurisdiction whether it allowed an in-camera hearing or the open court. Shah Khawar Advocate said that the cipher was a secret document and who would decode this document.

The court inquired whether there was any code of conduct or SOP related to the cipher. The special prosecutor said that during the hearing of the bail application, some important documents and statements were to be kept before the court, the statements of some countries were also to be brought on record, if this process was public, relations with some countries might be affected.

The code of conduct relating to the cipher was read out in the court. Manwar Dagal advocate said that the coded message is different for each country. Shah Khawar Advocate said that the cipher is a secret document that is kept confidential in any case, the cipher comes from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

 
Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)