The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has acquired one-day physical remand of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cypher case. The PTI stalwart, who was arrested from Islamabad shortly after a news conference a day earlier, is to be produced before a relevant court today (Monday).
Meanwhile, the FIA denied having arrested PTI leader and former federal minister Asad Umar. Senior officials of the FIA told Express News that Umar isn’t in their custody. Umar and Qureshi’s role in the cypher case will be determined during the investigation, they added. Minutes after Qureshi unequivocally conveyed in a news conference on Saturday that the party’s founding Chairman Imran Khan was irreplaceable and that the party was united under his vision, the FIA arrested him from his residence in the federal capital in the cipher leak case under the Official Secrets Act, 1923. The arrest came on the heels of the party stalwart confirming that the PTI leaders met roughly seven diplomats of different countries at a breakfast at the Australian High Commission the other day where Imran’s imprisonment, cypher controversy and other political issues were discussed. Currently, the FIA is interrogating incarcerated PTI chief and former premier Imran Khan in the case pertaining to the diplomatic cable that reportedly went missing from his custody and which he had for long presented as evidence of a “foreign conspiracy” to remove him as the prime minister. During the news conference, Qureshi, while demanding polls within the constitutional period of 90 days and a level-playing field for all parties before the general elections, admitted discussing the ongoing political situation, among other things, but denied having deliberated on Imran’s imprisonment and the cipher issue in the meeting.
The FIA had booked former premier Imran, former foreign minister Qureshi, among others, for “wrongful use” of official secret information and illegal retention of the cypher telegram – an official secret document – with malafide intention. The FIR No 6/2023 read that the role of the former principal secretary Azam Khan, former planning minister Asad Umar, and others associates involved would be ascertained during the course of investigations. Meanwhile, Azam Khan’s statement was recorded under Section 161 reportedly earlier this week, on Wednesday.
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