Ex-PM Imran Khan trial for leaking state secrets adjourned without indictment 

Journalists, policemen and lawyers gather outside the Adiala central jail in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on December 12, 2023, to attend the high-profile cipher case against former Prime Minister Imran Khan. (AN photo)
Short Url
Updated 12 December 2023
Follow

Ex-PM Imran Khan trial for leaking state secrets adjourned without indictment 

  • Despite court orders to allow media and public access to trial, only few journalists allowed inside jail premises
  • Lawyer says Khan and Qureshi’s family members barred from entering jail building, some PTI leaders also denied entry

RAWALPINDI: The trial of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan began today, Tuesday, in the “cipher case” in which he is accused of leaking official secrets, with proceedings adjourned until Wednesday without the ex-premier being indicted as was widely expected.

A special court established to hear the cipher reference had been conducting the trial inside the Adiala prison in Rawalpindi for weeks without media or members of the public allowed, before the Islamabad High Court ruled the hearings illegal last month and ordered them restarted in an open court. Khan had already been indicted in the case in October during the now annulled trial but the special court judge announced last week he would be indicted again on Dec. 12 as part of the restarted proceedings.

Hearings started afresh last week. Ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who is also accused in the case, will also be indicted with Khan.

“Hearing adjourned till tomorrow, Wednesday, December 13,” Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf said in a text message to reporters on Tuesday afternoon. “No indictment yet.”

On Tuesday, despite the court’s orders to allow journalists in the hearing, only around five were allowed inside while a dozen others waited outside the jail premises. No followers of Khan, arguably the most popular politician in Pakistan and the founder of the PTI party, had arrived at the scene, and there was scant police and security presence.

Khan’s legal counsel Salman Safdar appeared outside the jail while the hearing was ongoing and spoke to reporters, saying only a “few” representatives from the media were allowed entry into the jail premises and were seated at a distance of 50 feet from the judge during the hearing.

“Family members [of Khan and Qureshi] were stopped [from entering the jail] for 45 minutes,” Safdar added. “The cipher trial was wrapped up previously in haste due to which the entire activity was declared null and void [by the IHC].”

“We reject this open trial, we have submitted a request for a genuine open trial,” he added.




Uzma Khanum, center, and Aleema Khan, left, sisters of Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan, arrive to attend the hearing of the Cipher case against Khan at Adiala prison, in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, on December 12, 2023. (AP)

During the hearing, according to Safdar, Khan and Qureshi both requested the judge that witnesses in the case be presented in the presence of the media.

Even senior PTI leaders complained they had been barred by prison guards from entering the jail building.

“Despite having the court’s permission, this is the sixth time they have kept me from attending the hearing,” Raoof Hasan, PTI Coordinator For International Media, told Arab News outside Adiala.

Only a few journalists were allowed into the last hearing also, according to Khan’s legal team.

Khan has challenged the process of his indictment by the special court at the Islamabad High Court and requested that proceedings at Adiala be halted until the IHC petition is decided.

“My feeling is that this judge will be very anxious to proceed with the trial and once again frame charges [indict] in haste which he should not because we have filed certain applications in Islamabad High Court and they have not been fixed or taken up today,” Safdar, the lawyer, had told Arab News outside the prison before the hearing began.

“Until and unless they are taken up and decided, this trial court should wait.”

Safdar praised Khan for being in high spirits, saying he had not seen a client with so much “patience” in his 23-year-long legal career.

DIPLOMATIC CABLE

Khan is serving a three-year sentence at Adiala jail in a separate case in which he was convicted in August for failing to disclose assets earned from the sale of state gifts while he was PM from 2018-2022.

Khan is also accused in a number of other cases, including the cipher case, which relates to an alleged diplomatic correspondence between Washington and Islamabad that Khan says was proof that his ouster as PM in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022 was part of a US conspiracy to remove him. Washington has repeatedly denied Khan’s accusations.

According to Khan, the US got involved in the plot to oust him after his visit to Moscow and less than a month before his ouster, he waved a letter to a crowd during a public rally, claiming it was a cipher from a foreign nation calling for the end of his government. He later revealed that government to be the US.

According to the police complaint against them, Khan and Qureshi, who was Khan’s foreign minister during his tenure, are both accused of leaking state secrets to unauthorized individuals by publicly disclosing the contents of the confidential diplomatic cable and distorting facts “with ulterior motives and for personal gains.” These actions, authorities say, had jeopardized the Pakistani state’s security interests.

Khan has not been seen in public since he was arrested in August. Prior to that, he regularly addressed his millions of followers via social media platforms and held massive public rallies and protest marches. Khan had also been appearing in courts prior to his August arrest, protected by his personal security guards. But he had also sought exemptions from personal appearances, often citing threats to his safety.

The former premier says all cases against him are “politically motivated” and aimed at keeping him and his party out of politics ahead of general elections, due in February.

The caretaker government of PM Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar denies a crackdown against the PTI and says no party is barred from the polls.


Islamabad, Ankara discuss enhancing training and job opportunities for Pakistanis in Turkiye

Updated 4 sec ago
Follow

Islamabad, Ankara discuss enhancing training and job opportunities for Pakistanis in Turkiye

  • Pakistan’s religious affairs minister meets Turkish Ambassador Irfan Nazir Oglu in Islamabad to discuss matters of bilateral interest
  • Foreign remittances sent by thousands of overseas Pakistanis help cash-strapped country keeps fragile $350 billion economy afloat

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Religious Affairs Minister Chaudhry Salik Hussain met Turkish Ambassador Irfan Nazir Oglu on Wednesday to discuss provision of modern technical education and enhancing job opportunities for the country’s skilled workers in Turkiye, the religion ministry said in a statement.
Pakistan exports skilled manpower to several countries around the world such as Turkiye and the Gulf countries. Foreign remittances sent by overseas Pakistanis help the cash-strapped country keep its fragile $350 billion economy afloat.
Pakistan enjoys cordial relations and cooperation with Turkiye in various sectors such as trade, defense, media and economy. In May 2024, both countries resolved to enhance the volume of bilateral trade to $5 billion.
“During the meeting, various proposals were discussed regarding religious harmony, respect for humanity and providing more job opportunities for Pakistani workers in Turkiye,” Pakistan’s Ministry of Religious Affairs said. 
Hussain pointed out that both countries share similar stances on regional and global issues, and have supported each other on various global issues at the international stage.
“Turkish Ambassador Irfan Nazir Oglu expressed sorrow over the deaths of Pakistanis in the Morocco boat incident and reaffirmed the commitment to providing more job opportunities for skilled Pakistanis in Turkiye,” the religion ministry said.
The ambassador pointed out that Turkiye is working on increasing the supply of machinery to Pakistani industries and expanding technical training and educational projects in the South Asian country.
He said that though several Turkish companies are operating in Pakistan, there remains significant potential to increase joint investment and trade volume between the two countries, the religious affairs ministry said.
Hussain said 600,000 Pakistanis went abroad for employment last year, adding that by December 2024 overseas Pakistanis sent a record remittance of 3.1 billion dollars to Pakistan. 
“The establishment of better banking channels between Turkiye and Pakistan is also essential for promoting mutual trade,” the ministry said. 
It said the meeting concluded with an agreement to enhance cooperation toward eliminating extremism and “terrorism,” promoting interfaith harmony and providing skilled Pakistanis with modern technical education.


Pakistan seeks to boost trade through infrastructure, logistics cooperation with Dubai’s DP World

Updated 22 January 2025
Follow

Pakistan seeks to boost trade through infrastructure, logistics cooperation with Dubai’s DP World

  • Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb meets top officials from logistics giant DP World on sidelines of Davos conference
  • Meeting comes days after DP World launched a feeder service to transport shipping containers from Dubai to Karachi

ISLAMABAD: Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb met top officials from Dubai-based logistics giant DP World and discussed boosting trade through cooperation in infrastructure and logistics frameworks, Pakistani state media reported on Wednesday. 

The meeting comes days after DP World, in collaboration with Pakistan’s National Logistics Corporation, launched a feeder service to transport shipping containers from Dubai to Karachi. DP World operates in over 75 countries, specializing in port operations, terminal management and logistics services. Feeder services use smaller vessels to transport containers between regional ports, reducing shipping costs and transit time. 

Earlier this month, Pakistani officials and DP World also finalized terms for a freight corridor project from Karachi Port to the Pipri Marshalling yard in southern Pakistan.

“Aurangzeb met with Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of DP World Rizwan Soomar and Deputy CEO and Chief Financial Officer Yuvraj Narayan in Davos, Switzerland,” Radio Pakistan reported after the meeting. 

“During the meeting, discussions focused on enhancing infrastructure and logistical frameworks in Pakistan to boost trade,” the report said, adding that the finance minister assured DP World it wanted to advance business-to-business and business-to-government collaboration with the company. 

The UAE is Pakistan’s third-largest trading partner after China and the United States, and a major source of foreign investment, valued at over $10 billion in the last 20 years, according to the UAE foreign ministry. It is also home to more than a million Pakistani expatriates.

In January last year, Pakistan and the UAE signed multiple agreements worth more than $3 billion for cooperation in railways, economic zones and infrastructure.

The agreements cover the development of a dedicated freight corridor, multi-modal logistics park, and freight terminals. 

Under the agreements, DP World will carry out infrastructure improvement at Qasim International Container Terminal, Pakistan’s leading trade gateway. The Emirati firm also plans to develop an economic zone near the terminal.

DP World is also involved in the Karachi Freight Corridor, an infrastructure project in Pakistan aimed at improving the movement of freight from the port city of Karachi, Pakistan’s largest, to various parts of the country. The project involves the construction of a dedicated double-track corridor and other related facilities that will run 50 km from Karachi port to the Pipri Marshalling yard.


Militants launch fresh attacks in southwest Pakistan, targeting paramilitary check-post, trucks convoy

Updated 22 January 2025
Follow

Militants launch fresh attacks in southwest Pakistan, targeting paramilitary check-post, trucks convoy

  • In one attack on Wednesday, unidentified gunmen attacked, set on fire paramilitary Levies check-post in Panjgur
  • In second attack on Tuesday, attackers stopped and set on fire a convoy of trucks carrying minerals in Nushki 

QUETTA: Militants set on fire a paramilitary forces check-post and a convoy of trucks carrying minerals in two separate attacks in Pakistan’s Balochistan province, officials said on Wednesday, the latest assaults in a region plagued by a decades-long separatist insurgency. 

Groups like the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) seek independence for Balochistan, a mineral-rich, southwestern province bordering Afghanistan to the north and Iran to the west. The region, Pakistan’s largest in terms of land mass but its most impoverished, is home to key mining projects, including Reko Diq, run by mining giant Barrick Gold, and believed to be one of the world’s largest gold and copper mines. China also operates a gold and copper mine in the province, is building a deep-sea port in the coastal town of Gwadar and has funded an international airport, among several other projects that are part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) scheme. 

Separatist groups often target key infrastructure projects and security posts in Balochistan as well as Chinese interests, in particular the port of Gwadar on the Arabian Sea, accusing Beijing of helping Islamabad to exploit the province.

Nearly 300 people, including soldiers, were killed and dozens injured in more than 500 attacks reported in Balochistan in 2024.

In the last attack, Zahid Langove, Deputy Commissioner Panjgur, told Arab News unidentified gunmen attacked a paramilitary Levies check-post with a rocket in the district’s Pullabad area during the early hours of Wednesday.

“The midnight attack on Levies check-post was not of a large-scale,” Langove said. “No casualty was reported in the attack but the attackers set the check-post ablaze and escaped in the nearby mountains.”

In a separate attack, unidentified gunmen attacked a convoy of trucks carrying minerals in the province’s Nushki district. 

Zafar Sumalani, Station House Officer at the Nushki Police Station, said unidentified attackers stopped a convoy of trucks on the Pak-Iran highway, some four kilometers outside of Nushki city on Tuesday night. 

“Two trucks carrying minerals were torched and the attackers burst the tires of a truck with gunfire,” Sumalani said. 

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the two attacks but most attacks in the region are claimed by the BLA and other separatists who accuse Islamabad of exploiting the province’s natural resources such as gold and copper while neglecting the local population. Successive Pakistani governments have denied the allegations, saying they have prioritized Balochistan’s development through investments in health, education and infrastructure projects.

On Jan. 13, the military said Pakistani security forces had killed 27 militants in Balochistan in an intelligence-based operation in Kacchi district. 

The operation came after dozens of fighters of the BLA stormed the small town of Zehri in Khuzdar district and took control of the town for hours. The group set government buildings, including a Levies police station, ablaze and robbed 768,000 rupees ($2745) from a private bank.

In August last year, separatists killed over 50 people, including security forces, in a string of coordinated attacks in Balochistan, the deadliest the region had seen in decades. 


Security forces to resume demolishing bunkers today in Pakistani district wracked by sectarian feuds

Updated 31 min 12 sec ago
Follow

Security forces to resume demolishing bunkers today in Pakistani district wracked by sectarian feuds

  • At least 150 people have been killed in Kurram district since sectarian clashes broke out in November
  • Police and security forces confiscate large number of illegal weapons from district, says state media

ISLAMABAD: An armed crackdown in the northwestern Pakistani district of Kurram that has been marred by sectarian clashes since November continued on Wednesday, with the provincial chief minister’s office saying the process of demolishing bunkers would resume today.
Kurram, a tribal district of around 600,000 where federal and provincial authorities have traditionally exerted limited control, has frequently experienced violence between its Sunni and Shiite communities over land and power. Travelers to and from the area often ride in convoys escorted by security officials.
The latest feuding started on Nov. 21 when gunmen ambushed a vehicle convoy and killed 52 people, mostly Shiites. The assault triggered road closures and other measures that have disrupted people’s access to medicine, food, fuel, education and work and created a humanitarian crisis in the area, where authorities say at least 150 people have been killed in two months of feuding.
Media widely reported on Monday that Pakistani security forces had launched a “large-scale” operation targeting militants in the restive northwestern district bordering Afghanistan, after unidentified gunmen ambushed and burned aid trucks on Friday, killing up to 10 people. Pakistani forces had earlier this month also launched an operation to demolish bunkers established by warring factions in the district. The action was in accordance with a peace agreement signed by the warring tribes on Jan. 1 in which they had committed to demolish bunkers and hand over heavy weapons to authorities within two weeks.
“The process of demolishing illegal bunkers in Kurram is being resumed from today,” a statement from the chief minister’s office said. The decision was taken after Gandapur presided over a meeting of senior provincial officials to take stock of the situation in the district.
“Four convoys of vehicles containing essential items will be sent to Kurram by the end of this month.”
The provincial government also decided to summon a jirga or tribal council meeting of the signatories of the peace agreement. It said that the responsibilities of the signatories in implementing the agreement should be highlighted in the jirga.
“Both sides will formulate a procedure to clear Kurram of weapons and submit it to the government as soon as possible,” the chief minister’s office said.
It reiterated that indiscriminate action will be taken against “terrorists” and “hard-liners” belonging to either of the rival tribes, adding that those nominated in police complaints for attacks on aid convoys will be arrested.
Earlier, Pakistani state media said a large number of weapons were confiscated from Bagan in Kurram district on Wednesday.
“In a joint search and clearance operation by the district administration, police and security forces in the conflict-affected area of Bagan, district Kurram, a significant number of illegal weapons were recovered,” the Associated Press of Pakistan said.
Feuding tribes have been engaging in battles with machine guns and heavy weapons, isolating the remote, mountainous Kurram region. Parachinar is the main town in Kurram and a main road that connects the town to Peshawar, the provincial capital of the larger Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, has been blocked since sectarian fighting began in November. 
Provincial and federal authorities have been supplying relief goods and evacuating the injured and ailing from Kurram to Peshawar via helicopters since last month.
Shiite Muslims dominate parts of Kurram, although they are a minority in the rest of Pakistan, which is majority Sunni. The area has a history of sectarian conflict.


Pakistan court issues arrest warrants for top Imran Khan aides over riots led by supporters in 2023

Updated 22 January 2025
Follow

Pakistan court issues arrest warrants for top Imran Khan aides over riots led by supporters in 2023

  • Khan was himself indicted last month on charges of inciting supporters to attack military’s GHQ headquarters on May 9, 2023
  • Hundreds of PTI supporters and leaders were arrested while police registered cases against top leaders, including Khan

ISLAMABAD: An Anti-Terrorism Court (ATC) on Wednesday issued non-bailable arrest warrants for key aides of former premier Imran Khan, local media widely reported, in a case involving riots by supporters of the jailed PM’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, including attacks on military installations.

Khan was himself indicted last month on chparges of inciting his supporters to attack the military’s GHQ headquarters during protests on May 9, 2023. That day, after Pakistan’s powerful army publicly rebuked the PTI founder for repeatedly accusing a senior military officer of trying to engineer his assassination, Khan was arrested by the national anti-corruption agency in a land graft case. The arrest sparked a wave of protests by Khan supporters across the country, with rioters attacking important state buildings and ransacking military facilities, including the GHQ in the garrison city of Rawalpindi and the residence of the army’s top commander in the eastern city of Lahore. 

Hundreds of PTI supporters and dozens of leaders were subsequently arrested while police registered cases against the party’s top leaders, including Khan.

Pakistan’s top TV news channel, Geo News, reported on Wednesday that non-bailable arrest warrants had been issued for Omar Ayub Khan, the opposition leader in the National Assembly, and Shibli Faraz, the opposition leader in Senate, after both failed to appear before an anti-terrorism court in a case registered at the Civil Lines Police Station. 

“Warrants have also been issued ... against PTI’s Kanwal Shauzab as well as former party leader Fawad Chaudhry,” Geo reported. Several other Pakistani news channels also reported on the development.

Nearly 2,000 people were arrested following the May 9 protests and at least eight were killed. The government had called out the army to help restore order.

Though Khan was released on bail within days of the May 9 arrest, he was later arrested in August 2023 after he was handed a three-year prison sentence in a corruption case. He has been in jail since then.

His party was barred from Pakistan’s election on Feb. 8, 2024, but the would-be candidates stood as independents.

Despite the ban and Khan’s imprisonment for convictions on charges ranging from leaking state secrets to corruption, millions of the former cricketer’s supporters voted for him. Independent candidates from his party won the highest number of seats but not enough to form a government on their own. Khan cannot be part of any government while he remains in prison.

Khan and his party say all legal cases against him are based on made-up charges to keep him out of politics at the behest of the army after he had fallen out with the military’s generals. The army denies the accusation.

Last month, the government launched talks with the PTI to cool political temperatures in the South Asian nation. The two sides have met thrice and the PTI has said it will only attend a fourth round of talks if the government announced judicial commissions into accusations Khan’s party and supporters led violent protests on May 9, 2023, and Nov. 26, 2024, when protests in Islamabad demanding Khan’s release turned violent, with the PTI saying 12 supporters were killed while the state said four troops had died.