Last Monday, the longest hearing in the Cypher case against Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi took place, which continued for 12 hours that concluded late at night. During the hearing, the statements of 11 more witnesses were recorded, completing the cross-examination in the case. During the case, overall statements of all 25 witnesses were recorded, and cross-examination was conducted on them.
After cross-examining the witnesses, a questionnaire was prepared last night to record the statements of the accused, comprising 342 questions, which were given to both accused today, and their statements were recorded. After recording the statements, the government defense lawyers and the prosecution presented their final arguments. Subsequently, the Special Court Judge, Abu al-Hasnat Zulqarnain, pronounced a brief verdict, sentencing Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi to 10 years in prison each.
After recording the statement, the judge of the special court asked Imran Khan before pronouncing the sentence, “Where did Cypher go ?” To which Imran Khan responded, “I have stated in my statement, the security responsibility of the Prime Minister’s Office was not mine, and the cypher is not with me.”
Following the decision of the special court, a petition filed by Imran Khan in the Islamabad High Court became ineffective, in which he had challenged the decision to appoint government defense lawyers.
The first of all the government top officials including former Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif denied bluntly from the presence of any cypher. There is a question, which rises in the minds of supporters of PTI: If the cipher was not there, then what was the basis of this case.
The supporters of Imran Khan have the opinion that if the leader tells his nation about any foreign conspiracy against him, there is not any crime in it, while the opponents of Imran Khan have different type of viewpoint that when Khan felt that his government is going to topple, he attacked on the sovereignty of the country.
Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi are already in jail facing imprisonment in different cases. In the past the same kind of episodes were played with PPP and PML(N), during different eras in the past.
The case will definitely put deep impact on the politics of the country but as the level playing field was not provided to PTI, then the leaders of the party were forced to leave PTI. Then the electoral symbol of ‘cricket bat’ was snatched away from the party and different symbols were allotted to the candidates of the party, which is no according to the norms of the justice.
The elections which are going to be held on 8th February seems to be tilt on one sided for the first time in the history of the country as one party is crushed to the ground level and another political party is given full atmosphere and complete free hand for winning the elections.
After the court verdict, Imran Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, has announced her intention to appeal to the court against the verdict pronounced by the special court. After the verdict, speaking to the media outside the court, she criticized the judicial system and the judge delivering the verdict by saying that on February 8th, all people should vote as there is no better revenge than it.