Pakistan court grants permission to Imran Khan to speak to his sons

Imran Khan had filed a petition before Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain, seeking permission to speak to his sons - Suleman Khan and Qasim Khan - on the phone

Islamabad: A special court on Thursday granted permission to Pakistan’s embattled former prime minister Imran Khan – currently held at Attock Jail – to speak to his sons.

Khan, 70, had filed a petition before Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain, seeking permission to speak to his sons – Suleman Khan and Qasim Khan – on the phone.

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Judge Zulqarnain approved the plea and instructed the prison authorities to facilitate the telephonic conversation between the applicant and his sons in accordance with the law, the Dawn newspaper reported.

“Instant application is allowed. Superintendent District Jail Attock is directed to make necessary arrangements for phone calls between the accused and his sons in accordance with jail rules and manual,” the judge said in his brief order.

The development comes a day after Judge Zulqarnain on Wednesday extended Khan’s judicial remand till September 13 in a case related to the alleged disclosure of state secrets, dashing the former prime minister’s hopes of quick release from jail despite being granted bail a day earlier in a corruption case.

Earlier in the day, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) sought responses from the Law Ministry and other respondents on Khan’s plea against the recent decision to move the cipher case hearing from Islamabad to Attock Jail.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, who presided over the hearing, asked: “Was the court venue shifted?” Khan’s lawyer answered that the court designated to hear cases filed under the Secrets Act was that of a magistrate.

“Authorising an anti-terrorism court judge to hear cases filed under the Official Secrets Act is wrong,” Khan’s counsel asserted.

He urged the court to issue notices to the respondents seeking their response on the matter, which the chief justice allowed.

He requested the court to fix the next hearing for the coming week as it was an urgent matter, to which Justice Farooq agreed and adjourned the hearing till the next week.

The date for the next hearing has yet to be finalised.

The hearing of the case on Wednesday took place at Attock District Jail following approval by the Law Ministry amid security concerns expressed by the Interior Ministry.

Authorities decided on Tuesday to hold the hearing of the case inside the Attock jail where Khan has been kept since August 5 after his conviction in the Toshakhana corruption case.

Khan’s sentence was suspended by a two-member bench of the Islamabad High Court on Tuesday, but he was not allowed to walk free, as Judge Zulqernain hearing the cipher case ordered that the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chief be kept in prison and produced for hearing on Wednesday.

His party has criticised the decision to conduct hearings in Attock jail.

In March last year, ahead of the vote of no-confidence that resulted in his ouster, Khan pulled out a piece of paper – allegedly the cipher – from his pocket and waved it at a public rally in Islamabad, claiming it was the evidence of an “international conspiracy” being hatched to topple his government.

However, during the interrogation with the joint investigation team (JIT) in the jail on August 26, Khan denied that the paper he waved at a public gathering last year was the cipher. He also admitted to losing the cipher, saying he couldn’t recall where he kept it.

His principal secretary Azam Khan stated before a magistrate and the FIA that the Khan used it for his ‘political gains’ and to avert a vote of no-confidence against him.

The purported cipher (secret diplomatic cable) 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 Pakistani envoy Asad Majeed Khan last year.

Of late, Khan has come 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.