Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan grilled in Attock Jail in missing cypher case

Pakistan's jailed former prime minister Imran Khan was interrogated by counter-terrorism officials from the Federal Investigation Agency on Saturday at the Attock Jail in the cypher case under the Official Secrets Act, according to media reports.

Khan, 70, is currently serving a three-year jail term after he was sentenced by a court in a corruption case earlier this month.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman's interrogation comes days after he was booked under the Official Secrets Act for making the content of a confidential diplomatic cable from the country's embassy in the US public.

The counter-terrorism wing (CTW) of the FIA on Saturday began interrogating the incarcerated former prime minister in the 'missing' cypher case under the Official Secrets Act, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The FIA team interrogated the PTI chief for over an hour at the Attock Jail, where he is currently lodged, and inquired about the whereabouts of the missing cypher copy.

The team arrived at Attock prison around 2:15 pm and continued to grill Khan until 3:30 pm and then returned to Islamabad, the report said, quoting sources.

The investigation agency had registered the case against Khan and PTI vice chairman and former foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, after ascertaining their deliberate involvement in misusing the cypher and its misplacement following a probe, Samaa TV reported.

Qureshi, a close aide of Khan, was arrested by police from his house here on August 19, and during Saturday's interrogation, Khan was questioned about the former's revelations.

Citing the cypher, Khan has been alleging the US of hatching a conspiracy to topple his government. He had brandished the cypher at a public rally to back his claims. The US has time and again denied such allegations, terming them “categorically false”.

The purported cypher contained an account of a meeting between US State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu and then Pakistani envoy Asad Majeed Khan.

The cricketer-turned-politician came under increased scrutiny following the publication of a purported copy of the secret cable by the US media outlet The Intercept, with many in the previous government led by Shehbaz Sharif pointing fingers at the PTI chief for being the source of the leak.

Former interior minister Rana Sanaullah has said that if Khan had indeed lost the copy of the cypher provided to him, it would constitute a crime under the Official Secrets Act.

Citing the cypher, The Intercept, in a report published earlier this month, said, 'The US State Department encouraged the Pakistani government in a March 7, 2022, meeting to remove Imran Khan as prime minister over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.' The publication, however, also stated it made extensive efforts to authenticate the document, but 'given the security climate in Pakistan, independent confirmation from sources in the Pakistani government was not possible'.

The US State Department had said it could not verify the authenticity of the document.

The cypher case against Khan became serious after his principal secretary, Azam Khan, stated before a magistrate and the FIA that the former premier had used the US cypher for his ‘political gains’ and to avert a no-confidence vote against him last year.

Khan was ousted from power in April last year after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan.