ISLAMABAD: The federal government has challenged the Islamabad High Court’s (IHC) decision to declare its notification announcing former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s jail trial in a cipher case null and void.
In November of last year, the IHC overturned the notification for PTI founder Imran Khan’s jail trial in the cipher case filed on grounds of disclosing state secrets.
On November 21, 2023, an IHC division bench comprising Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and Justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz issued the result on Imran’s intra-court appeal against a single-member bench’s decision to approve his jail trial in the cipher case under the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
In its appeal submitted in the Supreme Court today, the federal government urged the court to reject the IHC ruling, claiming that the high court did not properly assess the facts of the case.
It argued that the IHC lacked the competence to declare unlawful a special court established to hear the former premier’s cipher trial.
The division bench granted Khan’s intra-court appeal and deemed the law ministry’s announcement to be “without lawful authority and no legal effect.”
In the three-page short order, the IHC noted that the jail trial can be held in “exceptional circumstances”.
“In exceptional circumstances and where it is conducive to justice, a trial can be conducted in jail in a manner that fulfills the requirements of an open trial or a trial in camera provided it is in accordance with the procedure provided by law.”
The court also ruled that the November 15 announcement published by the Ministry of Law and Justice following the interim cabinet’s approval of the jail trial “cannot be given retrospective effect”.
Imran’s cipher trial was then restarted, however the IHC declared any proceedings in the cipher case performed by a special court after December 14, 2023 to be void.
