SC rejects pleas for a cypher investigation

ISLAMABAD : On Wednesday, the Supreme Court (SC) dismissed the petitions calling for a probe into the cypher.

Judge Qazi Faez Isa, a senior judge on the SC, heard a petition about the challenges made to the pleas. Is it the responsibility of the court to handle international affairs? he questioned.

Imran Khan was the prime minister at the time, and the court was told of this. Imran also acknowledged waiving the cypher at a public assembly while serving as the premier.

Judge Qazi Faez questioned Imran’s authority to look into the cypher problem in his capacity as Prime Minister. If Imran had decided to carry out the probe in this respect.

He said, “If the government wishes, it can make the whole world’s encryption public. But, this would be against the Secrets Act if another organisation did the same thing.

The Electoral Commission of Pakistan (ECP) should investigate the cypher, according to Judge Faez, who also said that the court could not meddle in an executive branch problem. He stated that the probe should only be done by those who were accountable.

All three of the petitions related to the cypher were dismissed by the top court after hearing the attorneys’ arguments.

Judge Sardar Tariq Masood of Pakistan’s Supreme Court withdrew last month from an in-chamber hearing of petitions calling for an investigation into a cypher that, according to PTI Chairman Imran Khan, contained proof of a foreign plot against his administration.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and government filed the petitions in response to the SC registrar’s objections to them. Judge Masood had been chosen by Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial to hear them in his chambers. Yet Judge Masood had returned the petitions to the Chief Justice, requesting that he choose a different judge to preside over the hearing.

In his plea, the former prime minister asked the supreme court to create a Memogate-style committee to look into the purported “international plot” to depose his administration. The PTI leader’s appeal, however, was returned after the registrar’s office of the supreme court raised a number of issues. The PTI chairman then appealed to the Supreme Court, asking for an in-chamber hearing to override the registrar office’s objections.

According to Mr. Khan’s appeal, “It is the sincere aspiration/desire of the responding Respondent [Imran Khan] that this honourable court, which has taken cognizance of this issue, should undertake inquisitorial procedures, as done in the “Memogate case.”

Days before being ousted by a vote of no confidence in March, former prime minister Imran Khan displayed a letter in a public setting and claimed it was proof of a plan to topple his administration. This sparked the cypher issue. The PTI leader disclosed that the plot was organised by the US using local players but withheld the contents of the cypher from the audience. The charges have been vehemently refuted by the US.