ISLAMABAD
Pronouncing a reserved verdict, a court in Islamabad on Sunday granted to the police one-day physical remand of former foreign minister and PTI Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi in a cypher case.
Duty Magistrate Ihtesham Alam also ordered the police to produce Qureshi tomorrow. Qureshi was picked up from his Islamabad residence shortly after addressing a press conference against delay in the general elections.
Qureshi was nabbed in connection with a diplomatic cypher at the heart of PTI’s claim about a US conspiracy to remove Imran Khan from power. The PTI chief made the claim about cypher and conspiracy in March 2022, but later retracted it partially, saying it was General Qamar Javed Bajwa and not the USA that had hatched the conspiracy.
Earlier this month, when the contents of the cypher were published by The Intercept, the government booked Imran Khan under the Official Secrets Act for leaking the cypher.
Qureshi told the press conference that the PTI was going to challenge the Council of Common Interests’s (CCI) decision to hold next general elections under fresh delimitations; meaning thereby that elections would now be delayed until February.
PTI vice chairman said that elections could not be postponed beyond the 90-day period mandated in the constitution and if that happened the party would approach the Supreme Court.
Qureshi also urged Chief Justice of Pakistan Justice Umar Ata Bandial to take suo motu notice. Qureshi also denied reports of ‘differences within the PTI’, saying “no one can replace party chief Imran Khan”.
Former foreign minister termed the reports of differences within PTI’s core committee ‘false’ and said a media group was trying to spread confusion among the party’s ranks. “There is no truth to such reports, no one is replacing Imran Khan,” the PTI vice chairman said categorically.
