ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) Chief Imran Khan on Wednesday moved Supreme Court, challenging his indictment by a special court in the cipher case.
The deposed premier filed a petition in the Supreme Court through his lawyer Hamid Khan, urging it to declare the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision to withhold the indictment illegal.
In his petition, Imran Khan also requested the court that the framing of a charge against him by a special court formed under the Official Secrets Act, 1923 on October 23, 2023 should be declared “illegal, unlawful and violative of the Code of Criminal Procedure”.
“The special court has undeniably framed a charge that is flawed and inaccurate, and such errors will undoubtedly have severe repercussions. These defects are not correctable and have caused substantial prejudice to the petitioner [Imran Khan],” the petition stated.
The PTI chief in his plea contended that he was being politically victimised in the case. “The state machinery is being used to create fake cases against the petitioner [Imran],” it added.
“The petitioner and the co-accused [Shah Mahmood Qureshi], who has served as the Minister of Foreign Affairs twice, have been provided the immunity under Article 248 of the Constitution of Pakistan, 1973. Therefore, the exercise of persecuting the petitioner and the co-accused through commencing the trial under the Official Secrets Act, 1923 is unquestionably null and void in the eyes of law,” the plea added.
It is pertinent to mention here that Islamabad High Court (IHC) had rejected the bail plea of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman in the cipher case.
