RAWALPINDI: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi will be represented by state lawyers in the cipher case after their counsels failed to appear in court. Malik Abdul Rehman will represent Khan while Hazrat Younus will represent Qureshi in the case and cross-examine the witnesses. Both leaders are currently incarcerated in Adiala jail. During the hearing today, Qureshi took the file from the state-appointed lawyer and hit it on the wall. The development comes after the PTI founder and vice chairman’s counsels failed to appear in the special court, established under the Official Secrets Act, during the hearing of a petition filed by the prosecution seeking to terminate the right to cross-examination for the witnesses. Special court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqarnain reserved the verdict on the plea on Friday. Special Prosecutors Zulfikar Abbas Naqvi and Raja Rizwan Abbasi were present in court while the accused lawyers failed to appear. Assistant lawyers Qamar Anayat Raja and Khalid Yusuf Chaudhary then represented the defence. When the court inquired about the absence of the senior lawyers for the accused, Raja, filing an application to postpone the hearing, explained that senior counsel Sikander Zulqarnain was undergoing dental surgery and could not attend. Naqvi expressed concern about the repeated adjournment requests, emphasising the inconvenience to witnesses who have come from Dubai for cross-examination. Despite the explanation regarding the ongoing dental surgery, the court expressed frustration. DNA
