Pak: Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi's indictment in Cypher case postponed till October 23

However, during the hearing at Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail, special court judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain was informed that all case documents had been provided to the defence.

The defence team refused to accept the case challan at the previous briefing.

Meanwhile, at today's briefing, the defence lawyer raised an objection to holding Qureshi's trial in prison, according to The Express Tribune.

Following which, the prosecutor said that a notification had been issued by the federal government.

Adding to this, the defence further argued that given that the notification was issued on Tuesday, all prior proceedings were illegal as were the case documents, reported The Express Tribune.

Following the case documents were provided to the defence team against, the hearing was adjourned.

Later, the judge said that the indictment process will be initiated at the next hearing.

Earlier, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) disposed of the petition of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan seeking the hearing of a cypher case inside the Jail premises, directed the leader to approach the trial court on the matter, The Express Tribune reported.

The IHC announced the reserved verdict on the PTI's chief petition, Chief Justice Aamer Farooq said that keeping in view the security issue, the trial inside the jail was in favour of Imran. He added that Imran had expressed concerns about his security several times.

The cypher controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Imran Khan, just days before his ouster in April 2022, brandished a letter, claiming that it was a cypher from a foreign nation, which mentioned that his government should be ousted from power, according to The News International report.

The PTI chairman had claimed that he was reading contents from the cypher and said that "all will be forgiven for Pakistan Imran Khan is removed from power". (ANI)