IHC Adjourns PTI Founder, Qureshi's Appeal Till Thursday

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday adjourned hearing of appeals against the conviction of PTI founder and Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cipher case till Thursday

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 8th May, 2024) The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Wednesday adjourned hearing of appeals against the conviction of PTI founder and Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the cipher case till Thursday.

The IHC bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb heard the appeals of two accused.

During the course of proceedings, the FIA’s Special Prosecutor Hamid Ali Shah adopted the stance that leaked audio tapes of four people including PTI founder were available on internet in which they could be heard talking about how to use the cipher document for political gains.

At this, the chief justice remarked that today was an era of technology and dubbing of anyone's voice was possible through it.

Justice Gul Hassan remarked that most of the things on internet were based on lies and required verification.

The prosecutor said the audio leaks concerned were uploaded on the social media by a verified account of a citizen Azhar on September 8, 2022.

The court asked whether the FIA summoned the citizen and asked how he managed to record the conversation of former prime minister.

The prosecutor also cited the recording of the speech of PTI founder on March 27 by a cameraman of the ptv as an evidence, and provided its CD to the FIA.

The cameraman said that he had seen the PTI founder waving the document, the prosecutor said, adding that the next witness was the Foreign Office’s Director Iqra Ashraf.

Justice Miangul Hassan said that the FIA was now depending on the statement of cameraman instead of Azam Khan. He noted that Iqra Ashraf had admitted that it was not her final statement and that it was recorded in haste. Such a statement could not be considered, he added.

The prosecutor said that there were also more evidences in the case.