By The South Asia Times

ISLAMABAD - Pakistani authorities on Tuesday failed to produce former prime minister Imran Khan in the court in capital Islamabad despite the special court order.

On Tuesday when the hearing started in the special cipher court in Islamabad, the jail authorities submitted a report to Judge Abul Hassanat Zulqarnian and said Khan could not be produced due to a threat to his life.

Later the judge announced that Khan’s trial would be shifting to Adiala jail premises due to security threats but media and the public would be allowed as it will be an open trial.

However, Khan’s lawyers rejected the verdict and said former premier should be produced in the Islamabad judicial complex.

“We are not ready to accept this verdict, the security threat report is an excuse of government and government fear of defeat,” Naeem Haider, Khan spokesman said.

He demanded that Khan should be produced in Islamabad and they would not accept the jail trail.

Taimur Malik, another Khan lawyer also raised questions over the judge ruling. 

“In the Cypher case hearing today, we only made arguments around the disregard of the Special Court’s previous order which required production of Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi before the Court today. The Court has not commented on that and instead announced a brief order regarding the next hearing on Friday at Adyala Jail. There were no arguments during today’s hearing around the issue of a ‘jail trial’. Moreover, after the recent order of the IHC, a jail trial can only happen if certain procedural formalities are followed, he said on X.

Khan was arrested in August and trail of many cases against him has been conducted inside jail.

However, last week, Islamabad High Court termed his trial in jail in cipher case as illegal and ordered the lower special court to do so in open court.

Khan is accused of leaking state secrets, known as cipher case which is related to diplomatic communications between Washington and Islamabad, which Khan alleges was part of a US conspiracy to topple his government in April 2022.

Pakistani authorities filed case against Khan for sharing the US alleged conspiracy of regime change in Pakistan with the public.