Cipher case: IHC likely to hear Imran Khan's pleas ahead of trial court's indictment.

ISLAMABAD -- The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Thursday clubbed incarcerated Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan's separate petitions seeking to stay a trial court's proceedings in the cipher case and quash the case altogether.

On August 18, the former prime minister was booked under the Official Secrets Act 1923 in the cipher case after the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) invoked Section 5 of the said law. The diplomatic cable reportedly went missing from Khan's possession. According to the former ruling party, the cable contained a threat from the US to topple the PTI's government.

It is pertinent to mention here that a special court while hearing the cipher case in the Adiala Jail on October 10 announced that the PTI chairman and Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi would be indicted in the cipher case on the 17th of this month.

At the outset of today's hearing, Sardar Latif Khosa - Khan's counsel - argued that the matter about the cipher case was in the high court while the Lahore High Court (LHC) has also issued a stay in a case filed by the FIA in this regard. In this situation, he pleaded with the high court to suspend the trial court proceedings and stop it from indicting the former prime minister in the cipher case.

Khosa said that his team repeatedly urged the trial court that the matter should not be decided in haste as the case was already...