ISLAMABAD: After the First Information Report (FIR) filed by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan under Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923. Former Prime Minister has been booked under the said law in the cipher case, JEE News reported.
The FIA’s counter-terrorism wing had registered a case against the former prime minister – who was removed from office after a no-confidence motion in April last year – after an investigation into his deliberate misuse of classified documents. After detection of involvement.
On Thursday, government sources also confirmed that a case has been registered against the PTI chief under Section 5 of the recently amended Act. However, the authorities were reluctant to share the copy of the FIR.
Offenses under Section 5, if proven in a court of law, are punishable by two to 14 years in prison, and in some cases the death penalty.
According to Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act 1923: “(1) If any person has in his possession any secret official code or password or any diagram, plan, model, article, note, document or information relating thereto or relating to. used in a prohibited place or relating to anything in such a place, or made or obtained in contravention of this Act, or which by any person holding office under the [Government] entrusted to him by a person, or obtained by him or to which he has access by reason of his position as a person holding office under or over [Government] holds, or as a person who holds or holds a contract made by [Government], or as a person who is or is employed by a person who holds such a position or holds a contract
a) knowingly communicates the code or password, diagram, plan, model, article, note, document or information to any person other than to whom he is authorized to communicate it, or to a court of justice or any such It is the duty of the person to whom it is addressed to communicate, in the interests of the State; or
b) uses information in his possession for the benefit of a foreign power or in any other way to undermine the security of the State; or c) retains in his possession or control a sketch, plan, model, article, note or document when he has no right to keep it, or when it is contrary to his duty to retain it, or knowingly all fail to comply with instructions issued by a statutory authority regarding its return or disposal;
d) fails to take reasonable care, or does so, to endanger the security of a sketch, plan, model, article, note, document, secret government code or password or information;
He shall be guilty of an offense under this section.
(2) If any person voluntarily obtains any secret government code or password or any diagram, plan, model, article, note, document or information which he has reasonable cause to know or believe, when receives, that the code, password, diagram, plan, model, article, note, document or information has been given in contravention of this Act, shall be guilty of an offense under this section.
(3) A person guilty of an offense under this section shall be punishable, (a) where the offense committed is a contravention of clause (a) of subsection (1) and is intended or contemplated, directly or indirectly; , for the interest or benefit of any foreign power, or relating to a defence, armament, naval, military or air force establishment or station, mine, mine, factory, dockyard, camp, ship or aircraft or any other work Is. in connection with the affairs of the naval, military or air forces of Pakistan or in connection with any secret official regulation, [with death, or] with imprisonment for a term which may extend to fourteen years; and (b) in any other case, with imprisonment for a term which may extend to two years, or with fine, or with both.
The Cipher case against the former prime minister turned serious when his principal secretary Azam Khan testified before a magistrate and the FIA that the former prime minister had “political advantage” and to prevent a no-confidence vote against him. American cipher was used for this. .
The ex-bureaucrat said in his confession that he was “happy” when he provided the cipher to the former prime minister and called the language “an American mistake”. According to Azam, the former prime minister then said the cable could be used to “create a narrative against the establishment and the opposition”.
Azam said the PTI chairman used American ciphers in political gatherings, despite his advice to refrain from such actions. He mentioned that the former prime minister had also told him that the cipher could be used to draw public attention to “foreign involvement” in the opposition’s no-confidence motion.
