Imran Khan and Mahmud Qureshi were acquitted in the case

June 4, 2024 3:14 am

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been acquitted in the Saefer case. On Monday, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) released two people from the case in question.

A bench consisting of Chief Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb passed the verdict on Monday. Central leaders of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) were present at the Islamabad High Court when the verdict was announced.

Besides, Imran Khan’s sister and Shah Mahmood Qureshi’s wife and daughters were also present in the court.

In this case, Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi were sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by the lower court on January 30. Later, PTI’s lawyers appealed to the Islamabad High Court to cancel the verdict.

A hearing on the application was held on Monday. After the hearing, the joint bench of Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb released Imran-Qureshi from the case in a short verdict.

PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar said after the verdict, today is a happy day for Pakistan and its 25 crore people.

He said, an unwanted and baseless case has come to an end.

The cypher case against Imran Khan is mainly related to a secret diplomatic document or cable. Pakistan’s then ambassador to Washington, Majid, sent a secret document to Imran Khan’s government in Islamabad. And the content of that document was made public by the founder of PTI.

PTI claims that the document contains evidence of US threats to remove Imran Khan from the post of Prime Minister. Imran Khan kept this state secret document to himself and made its contents public.

The debate in Pakistan began on March 27, 2022; Just a month before Imran Khan was ousted from power. While addressing a rally, party workers displayed a letter in front of supporters. At that time he claimed that this is a cipher from a country.

The country is conspiring with Imran Khan’s political rivals to overthrow the PTI government; The proof of which is in the letter.

He did not disclose the contents of the letter or the country from which it came. Although the letter’s content is clearly hinted at in his speech.

But Imran told a public meeting a few days after opposition MPs were ousted in a vote of no confidence on April 10 that the US Secretary of State for South and Central Asia had a meeting with Donald Lu, the head of the South and Central Asia Division, and that the Pakistani ambassador had proposed to the Pakistani ambassador to remove Imran Khan from power. he did

According to Imran, Lu said that if Imran Khan was ousted, then the corruption charges against Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PMLN) chairman Nawaz Sharif and other senior leaders of the party would be settled.

But the matter stopped there as the United States completely denied this allegation.

Shahbaz Sharif, acting chairman of PMLN and younger brother of Nawaz Sharif, became the prime minister of Pakistan after Imran was ousted from power. He also did not pay attention to the matter for a long time.

But things took a different turn in September this year, after two audio tapes of Imran Khan, PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Secretary General Asad Omar were leaked. In the audio tape, the three are heard discussing how the PTI can make political use of the letter.

Then on September 30, the Caretaker Cabinet directed the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), Pakistan’s central investigative agency, to investigate the matter. Last October, the FIA ​​submitted a report declaring Imran and Qureshi as criminals.

Taking note of that report, the election caretaker cabinet allowed the FIA ​​to file a case against Imran Khan in a special court that month.

Three months after filing the case, the lower court on January 30 convicted Imran and Qureshi and sentenced them to 10 years in jail, which was commuted today.