Ex-Pakistan PM Imran Khan meets Shah Mehmood Qureshi in Adiala jail

Islamabad: Former Pakistan prime minister Imran Khan met his senior party colleague and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the Adiala jail during a hearing in connection with the cipher case, a media report said on Thursday.

The chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, who turned 71 today, has been lodged in the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi since September 26 when he was brought from Attock prison in Punjab province, a day after the Islamabad High Court ordered authorities to relocate him to the high-security jail.

The Express Tribune newspaper said, the Khan-Qureshi meeting was the first between the two jailed leaders and described the “peculiar arrangement” during which a net separated the courtroom from Khan and the former foreign minister.

On September 30, Pakistan's top investigation agency, the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted a charge sheet against Khan and Qureshi to a special court established under the Official Secrets Act.

Khan and Qureshi’s judicial remand in the same case (cipher) was extended till October 10. Khan was arrested after a case was filed against him for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act by disclosing a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) sent by the country's embassy in Washington last year in March.

“The lawyers representing PTI had a brief conversation with the party chairman through the net,” the report said and further described, quoting sources, that Khan “appeared to be in a normal state” during the hearing, which lasted for approximately an hour.

The report further quoted the sources that revealed that the prosecution had requested an in-camera hearing and an early trial.

“Special Court Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain also mentioned that copies of the challan, or charge sheet, would be provided to the accused during the upcoming hearing of the cypher case in the jail,” it said. However, the hearing was adjourned till October 9 upon the lawyers' request.

The PTI has maintained that the document (cipher) contained a threat from the United States to remove the party chairman from his position, report said.

Earlier, Khan was transferred to the Attock jail on August 5 this year after he was sentenced to three years in prison in the Toshakhana graft case.

The FIA had requested in-camera proceedings for Khan’s bail plea in the cipher case contending that an open hearing could potentially harm diplomatic relations with other countries. However, the Ministry of Law and Justice had issued a notification for the jail trial of the former premier and former foreign minister in the cipher case.