ISLAMABAD: The Supreme Court of Pakistan on Friday granted bail to former Prime Minister Imran Khan and one of his senior aides in the ‘cipher case’ in which he is charged with leaking state secrets.
Khan is serving a three-year sentence at Rawalpindi’s Adiala jail in a separate ‘Toshakhana’ case in which he was convicted in August of not declaring assets earned from the sale of state gifts during his 2018-22 tenure as prime minister. He denies any wrongdoing and says the charges, as well as those related to the cipher case, are politically motivated and intended to keep him and his PTI party out of general elections in February.
In a message sent to reporters, the PTI announced that Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Khan’s foreign minister during his tenure as PM, had been granted bail by the top court.
“PTI has always maintained its position on the nature of this bogus trial,” the PTI said.
However, Khan’s bail in the cipher case does not mean he will be freed, as he is convicted in the Toshakhana case, and is remanded in police custody in the case of a £190 million settlement with a property tycoon called the Al-Qadir trust case. He also faces dozens of other cases, ranging from terrorism to attempted murder.
“The Supreme Court has granted bail to both Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cipher case, but it is too early to say anything about their actual release from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi,” Qureshi’s lawyer Taimur Malik told Arab News.
“The National Accountability Bureau has already taken custody of Imran Khan in the Toshakhana and Al-Qadir Trust cases, so his bail has to be secured in these cases too for his release.”
Malik said Qureshi had secured bail in all cases registered against him, and there was now no “apparent” reason to keep him in jail.
“Shah Mahmood Qureshi will be released from jail if he is not arrested in any other case,” he added, referring to recent instances in which new cases were filed against PTI supporters and Khan aides after they got bail in another.
A copy of the Supreme Court’s order seen by Arab News states that the court found “no sufficient incriminating material” Khan disclosed the contents of the diplomatic cable to the public, either directly or indirectly, in the interest or for the benefit of a foreign power, nor did he disclose information relating to any of the defense installations or affairs.
The order said there wasn’t sufficient material evidence to indicate Khan had disclosed a secret official code to the public at large.
“The discretion exercised by the high court in denying bail to the petitioners is found to have been exercised perversely, that is, against the weight of the material available, on record of the case, which warrants interference by the court,” the order read.
The cipher saga 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.
Weeks before his ouster, Khan had waved a letter to a crowd during a public rally last year, claiming it was a cipher from a foreign nation calling for the end of his government. Khan later revealed that country to be the US and said the secret diplomatic letter spoke of dire consequences if he continued to get closer to Russia. The government at the time of PM Shehbaz Sharif said Khan’s actions amounted to leaking state secrets and using them for political gains.
A special court was formed on Aug 21 under the Official Secrets Act, 1923, to adjudicate the case. The hearings have been held in Adiala jail, without access granted to media and family members at most proceedings.
Pakistan Supreme Court grants bail to Imran Khan in state secrets case
https://arab.news/9qqd4
Pakistan Supreme Court grants bail to Imran Khan in state secrets case
- Not clear if Khan would be released as he has multiple arrest warrants issued against him in several other cases
- Khan is serving three-year jail sentence for corruption, faces slew of legal challenges since being ousted from PM office
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
- 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
- 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
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
- 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.
