Shah Mahmood Qureshi sent to jail on judicial remand

RAWALPINDI: A court of judicial magistrate on Thursday sent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Vice Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi to jail on Judicial remand in 12 cases registered against him following May 9 riots, ARY News reported. 

Qureshi was presented before Duty Magistrate Syed Jahangir Ali’s court in the GHQ attack case under strict security.

At the outset of the hearing, police sought a 30-day physical remand of the former foreign minister but the plea was opposed by the lawyers of the PTI vice president.

The lawyers argued that those named in the May 9 violence cases were acquitted and urged the court to acquit Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

On Wednesday, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) vice chairman, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, was rearrested from outside Adiala jail.

Punjab’s RA Bazaar police station cops rearrested Shah Mahmood Qureshi after his release from Adiala Jail on bail in cipher case on Supreme Court orders.

Read more: Shah Mahmood Qureshi rearrested from outside Adiala jail

The release came after police pleaded to end the 15-day detention orders of the former foreign minister under 3-MPO.

The cipher case

The cipher case pertains to a piece of paper that Imran Khan had waved at a public rally on March 27, 2022, ahead of a vote of confidence that he lost. The former prime minister, later naming the US, had claimed that the cipher was ‘evidence’ of an “international conspiracy” to topple his government.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi was serving as the foreign minister at that time and was indicted in the case on October 23.

The case was registered after Imran Khan’s then-principal secretary, Azam Khan claimed that the former PM used US cipher for  ‘political gains’ and to avert a no-confidence motion against him.