A 2-member bench of the Islamabad High Court gave summary judgment on the appeals against the sentence
Islamabad (Urdu Point Akhbar Latest. 03 June 2024) The Islamabad High Court accepted the appeals of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi against the sentence in the cipher case and annulled the decision of the trial court. The sentences of the Prime Minister and the former Foreign Minister were suspended and they were acquitted. According to the details, a hearing was held in the Islamabad High Court on appeals against the sentences of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cipher case, where Chief Justice Amir Farooq and Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb started the hearing. Zulfiqar Naqvi was absent, his assistant counsel said that 'Give some time and we will come for twenty minutes', the court said that 'We have canceled the regular division bench to hear this case, we are sitting only for you. and there is no work, we said earlier that at 11 o'clock we had told the time, due to this case the regular DB has been canceled and there are no government lawyers, has Hamid Ali Shah withdrawn the lawyer's letter? ?', on this the Assistant Attorney General said that 'Hamid Ali Shah has just been spoken to, he is with his mother in a well-known hospital, Salman Safdar should certainly start the arguments'.
Imran Khan's lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, started the arguments and said that "Azam Khan gave the cipher to Imran Khan, there is no document related to it". Salman Safdar took the position that it is the responsibility of the prosecution to prove this, the law is very clear and there are decisions of the Supreme Court in this regard, the prosecution has to fulfill the responsibility of proving the case. Hai', meanwhile, FIA prosecutor Zulfiqar Naqvi reached the court.
On this occasion, the court, speaking to the officially appointed lawyers for Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, asked, "Have you done any death penalty trial before?", submit the details of these cases, lawyer barrister Continuing his arguments, Salman Safdar said, "What kind of charge is it that the cipher pass was kept, lost or given to someone, if the cipher is lost, then how can the charge be made for keeping the cipher pass?", Cipher Document, Cipher The text did not come on record, Raja Rizwan Abbasi kept telling the Supreme Court, High Court, Trial Court that he cannot give the classified security book, but Hamid Ali Shah Sahib said that he can give the book because the rules are there, barrister Salman with these arguments. Safdar requested the acquittal of Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi.
The Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court remarked that "on the last hearing, the prosecution asked to send the case back to the trial court, there are flaws in it, Mr. Salman Safdar, tell me what you want to say about it," lawyer Salman Safdar. "Today we are three months into this case, we have come a long way," he said. Justice Mian Gul Hasan Aurangzeb said that "the case mentioned by FIA Prosecutor Zulfikar Naqvi cannot be heard on merit, we want your legal assistance", on this occasion, on behalf of Barrister Salman Safdar. Opposing the remand of the Cipher case, he argued that 'whatever errors were committed by the trial court were committed by the prosecution, remanding the case would be a violation of Article 13A of the Constitution'. At the same time, Salman Sadr completed his arguments.
After that, the Chief Justice of Islamabad High Court asked the FIA prosecutor that 'How long did you give your arguments when the sentence was pronounced on January 30?', the FIA prosecutor replied 'You gave arguments for a while', Chief Justice Amir Farooq asked 'What do you mean by a little while? 4 hours and 15 minutes?', the prosecutor said that 'I think the arguments were given for an hour', on this Chief Justice Amir Farooq remarked that 342 statements were recorded at 11:30 and the decision came at 2 o'clock, 342 statements. Within an hour and a half of recording, the 70-page judgment came, we will write in our judgment that there has been a very good trial'.
On this, the FIA prosecutor said that 'If the trial is not successful, then remand back', to which the court replied that 'We have listened to you and Salman Safdar for 3 months, now how can we send you back, your Do you have any arguments?, 51C requirement fulfilled or not? Tell me, what I understand is that you have not fulfilled the requirement, where has the prosecution proved that Imran Khan could not have kept the cipher?', Justice Mian Gul Hassan Aurangzeb remarked that 'what judge in the cipher case? had written the decision in advance?', while Chief Justice Amir Farooq said that 'What should we do about something we do not know, we have not seen it? , In my personal opinion the prosecution has no evidence in the cipher case', with these remarks the court reserved the verdict and later the case was given a summary judgment.
