File photo of former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan.
| Photo Credit: PTI

An accountability court in Pakistan on May 15 adjourned the hearing of the £190 million corruption case against Imran Khan till May 17, citing “security concerns” at the high-security Adiala prison where the former Prime Minister is currently imprisoned, media reports said.

The 71-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder has been lodged at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi since August last year.

The Islamabad accountability court accepted the request of the Adiala Jail’s superintendent to adjourn the hearing of the case against Mr. Khan due to ‘security concerns’, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

The Court adjourned the hearing till May 17, it said.

In his request, the jail official cited reports received by the Punjab Home Department of the threat alerts on prisons in Punjab by banned organisations.

Asserting that the Adiala jail is the most sensitive prison in the province and houses more than 7,000 prisoners, the official said that criminals involved in serious crimes, including high-profile political entities, are also incarcerated there.

Security threats were also received for the Mianwali, Dera Ghazi Khan, Rawalpindi (Adiala) and Attock jails, said the request.

Following the reports, security was increased in and around the prison, and a mock exercise was also conducted by security forces there.

Surrounding areas were also being combed by security personnel, the paper said.

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On May 14, the Punjab Home Department imposed a ban on meeting of relatives and others with all prisoners in the Adiala Jail for three days owing to security concerns, the Dawn newspaper reported.

A ban on providing any items to prisoners was also imposed.

In March, the Punjab government banned Mr. Khan from holding any meetings, including with his family members, lawyers and party leaders for two weeks at the Adiala Jail.

The Al-Qadir Trust case is about the settlement of 190 million pounds, about ₹50 billion, which the U.K.’s National Crime Agency sent to Pakistan after recovering the amount from a Pakistani property tycoon.

Being the Prime Minister then, Mr. Khan, instead of depositing in the national treasury, allowed the businessman to use the amount to partly settle a fine of about ₹450 billion imposed by the Supreme Court some years ago.

Reportedly, the tycoon, in return, gifted about 57 acres of land to a trust set up by Mr. Khan and Bushra Bibi to establish the Al-Qadir University in the Sohawa area of the Jhelum district of Punjab.

In December 2023, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) initiated an investigation against the former cricketer-turned-politician, his wife and others in the case of alleged acquisition of hundreds of canals of land under the name of Al Qadir University Trust, resulting in a reported loss of 190 million pounds to the exchequer.

Since his removal from power in a no-confidence motion in April 2022, Mr. Khan has been convicted in at least four cases, including the cipher (secret diplomatic communication) case.

Islamabad:

The lawyer of former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan alleged on Saturday that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is being “mentally tortured” in the Adiala Jail, ARY News reported.

PTI chief lawyer Naeem Hairder Panjotha alleged that Khan is kept in a small room of C-class jail and is not allowed to come out of that room even for a walk.

Imran Khan’s counsel said that he doubts the quality of food being given to the former PM. Notably, the plea regarding food is still pending in the court.

Panjotha further questioned the in-camera hearing of cipher case and urged to proceed with the open trial of the case. He said the conviction of PTI chairman in cipher is a part of “campaign to keep the former PM out of politics”, ARY News reported.

Earlier in the day, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) rejected the challan submitted by Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and demanded the formation of a judicial commission to investigate the cipher case.

In a statement issued on Saturday, the PTI spokesperson said that the challan submitted against party chairman and vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi was “meaningless and bogus as cipher case”.

In its challan, the FIA stated that Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi were found guilty in the matter. The agency requested the court to conduct their trial and sentence them in the case.

Former PTI Secretary-General Asad Umar’s name has not been included in the list of accused, Geo News reported citing sources. Imran Khan’s former principal secretary Azam Khan has been named as a “strong witness” in the case, the report said.

Geo News reported citing sources, the names of former foreign secretaries Asad Majeed, Sohail Mehmood and the then additional foreign secretary Faisal Niaz Tirmizi have also been included in the list of witnesses.

On September 26, the special court extended the judicial remand of Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi till October 10 in the cipher case. Earlier in August, the FIA booked the PTI chairman and vice chairman under the Official Secrets Act for allegedly misplacing and misusing the classified document for their vested political interests.

Subsequently, Khan and Qureshi were arrested in connection with the probe into the case and a special court was formed under the Official Secrets Act to try the accused, Geo News reported.

The ciphergate controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran Khan just days before his ouster in April 2022 brandished a letter, claiming that it was a cipher from a foreign nation, which mentioned that his government should be removed from power, according to The News International report.

He did not reveal the contents of the letter nor mention the name of the nation that had sent it. But a few days later, he named the United States and said that Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Affairs Donald Lu had sought his removal, The News International reported.

Imran Khan claimed that he was reading contents from the cipher, said that “all will be forgiven for Pakistan if Imran Khan is removed from power”.

The cipher case against Pakistan’s former PM became serious after his principal secretary Azam Khan in a statement before a magistrate and the FIA said that the former PM had used the US cipher for his “political gains” and to avert a vote of no-confidence against him, The News International reported.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)