RAWALPINDI: Former prime minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will on Tuesday be indicted again in the cipher case by a special court established under the Official Secrets Act.

This is the second time they are being indicted the first being on October 23 in the case due to the previous proceedings being scrapped by the Islamabad High Court.

The cipher case pertains to a diplomatic document that the Federal Investigation Agency’s charge sheet alleges was never returned by Imran. The PTI has long held that the document contained a threat from the United States to oust Imran as prime minister.

At the first indictment, both Imran and Qureshi had pleaded not guilty. The trial was being held at Adiala Jail and four witnesses had alre­a­dy recorded their statements, with the fifth being cross-examined when an Islamabad High Court division bench termed the government’s notification for a jail trial “erroneous” and scrap­ped the entire proceedings.

As a result of the judgment, the special court started a fresh trial. Last month, Special Court Judge Abual Hasnat Zulqar­nain had ruled that the trial proceedings would continue at the Adiala Jail but in an open court.

In the Dec 2 hearing, Qureshi had urged the court to summon President Dr Arif Alvi so he could testify whether he had assented to changes in the Official Secrets Act 1923.

During the previous hearing, PTI lawyer Senator Babar Awan had said Imran wanted an “ex-army general and a US envoy” to be summoned by the special court.

While the PTI lawyer had not named the former military officer, media persons who attended the hearing had said Imran mentioned ex-army chief retired General Qamar Javed Bajwa.

A day ago, the former premier had challenged the process of his indictment in the cipher case in the IHC, urging it to halt the proceedings till deciding on this petition.

The petition claimed that the proceedings of Dec 4 were “liable to set aside” as they were “carried out unauthorisedly and are illegal, unlawful, improper, incorrect”.

The former PTI chief, along with former central leader of the party Fawad Chaudhry, is also set to be indicted in a contempt case of the Election Commission of Pakistan tomorrow (Wednesday).

Today, the hearing began at the Adiala district jail, where both PTI leaders were presented before Judge Zulqarnain.

The FIA’s special prosecutors Shah Khawar and Zulfikar Abbas Naqvi were also present in the courtroom while Barrister Salman Safdar appeared as Imran’s counsel and Barrister Taimur Malik as Qureshi’s lawyer.