Imran Khan’s lawyer has claimed that the matter of the cipher being ‘lost’ was suddenly brought to the surface months after the document had been discussed in a National Security Committee meeting.

Naeem Haider Panjutha, who is part of the legal tem in the cipher case, told Faisla Aap Ka that Imran Khan had always called for an independent investigation of the whole affair.

He added the characters involved in the matter including those who the cipher was addressed should be made part of the investigation.

Panjutha added that two separate meetings of the National Security Committee had taken place under Imran Khan and Shehbaz Sharif’s premiership where the cipher must have been shown.

He added that the matter of the the cipher being lost had suddenly emerged six months after the Khan’s government had been dismissed. The lawyer added that the second meeting could not have taken place if the cipher had been lost.

Pakistan Peoples Party leader Naz Baloch said that Khan had tried to concoct a story about the cipher to avoid facing the the no-confidence vote. She added that PTI’s own ‘back benchers’ in the National Assembly would admit that the cipher’s tale was being used for political purposes.

She added that twisting words and taking u-turns over the matter was nothing new.

Baloch also added that a man had been part of the PPP for decades was suddenly made chairman, ignoring the party’s workers who had struggled for years.

PMLN’s Azma Bokhari said that it seemed Imran Khan’s lawyers were completely in the dark about what the case was and would get him a bigger sentence than what he might get without them.

She added that each cipher has four copies and the copy sent to the PM house was for its record. Bokhari said that it had been revealed as soon as PM Shehbaz Sharif took over that the PM house’s copy had been lost.

Asnwering a question on how prime minsiters throughout history had faced treson cases, Bokhari said there were much more strongly-worded ciphers sent against PM Bhutto and PM Nawaz Sharif.

She added that if Khan was serious about summoning General (r) Bajwa, he should submit an application instead of playing to the gallery.

Panjutha added that the Imran Khan and PTI had been the biggest affectees of the May 9 incident. He added that while Khan had been put in jail, ‘red carpets’ had been rolled out for Nawaz Sharif.

He also added that the no-confidence vote was unconstitutional and members of the assembly had been bought and confined to the Sindh House.

Baloch responded that PTI’s women had to take refuge in the Sindh House after their doors in the Parliament Lodges had been broken into.

‘London plan’

Azma Bokhari said that the real London plan was when Imran Khan had decided to converge on Islamabad to remove an elected government, not Nawaz’s return to Pakistan. She added that Khan had always playe dpolitics over ‘corpses’.

She added that Khan had built a narrative over a year by making serious accusations against the army which had culminated in protests of May 9.

Bokhari added that people from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan were involved in training people outside Zaman Park and there were multiple audios of PTI leaders rejoicing over the attacks.

Panjutha said Khan had been arrested to provoke party supporters into protesting. However, since the arrest no proof of anyone’s involvement in the violent riots has been proved.

He said that PTI had always demanded a high-powered judicial commission to probe the May 9 incident PTI’s workers had also been killed in the protests.

Bokhari claimed that Khan was threatening the officials who went into the jail to interrogate him.

Baloch said that Imran Khan had been declared a ‘red line’ for the entire country and trends had been run against the army to aggravate the situation.

She said that the cases against the Imran Khan should reach their logical conclusion so that the wrong precedents are not set in society.