What is the classified document, that led to former Pak PM Imran Khan’s indictment in the cypher case?

What was the classified cable?

The document at the centre of the controversy contained an account of a meeting that took place on March 7, 2022, between US State Department officials, including Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs Donald Lu, and then Pakistani ambassador to US Asad Majeed Khan.

The complete text of the purported cable hasn’t been disclosed yet as it is protected under Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act 1923 of Pakistan. However, in August 2023, American news organisation The Intercept reproduced a section of the document — the outlet said that it received the document from a source in Pakistan’s military.

In the meeting, the US officials expressed their displeasure regarding Imran’s neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine — the then PM was in Moscow on February 24, 2022, when President Valmadir Putin announced the invasion of Ukraine, according to The Intercept report.

Lu went on to say: “I think if the no-confidence vote against the Prime Minister succeeds, all will be forgiven in Washington because the Russia visit is being looked at as a decision by the Prime Minister”. “Otherwise,” he continued, “I think it will be tough going ahead.”

Asad Majeed sent the details of the gathering to Islamabad through a cable, labelled “Secret”. Notably, just a day after the meeting, on March 8, Imran’s political rivals in Parliament moved forward with a key procedural step toward the no-confidence vote. More than a month later, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief was ousted from office after the vote succeeded.

The US State Department on multiple occasions has denied that its officials encouraged their Pakistani counterparts to oust Imran.

What is the cypher case? 

Imran talked about the secret document for the first time on March 27, 2022, at a huge gathering in Islamabad, where he pulled out a ‘letter’ from his pocket, claiming it to be proof of an international conspiracy to remove him from the top job. Ten days later, he revealed more details about the cable and said, “The US had sent a threatening message through Pakistan’s envoy,” according to a report by Dawn.

Since then, especially after his ouster, Imran has repeatedly brought up the classified cable and its content to claim that the US was behind the no-confidence vote against him. In response, in July this year, the Pakistan Muslim League (N)-led government accused the former PM of “exposing an official secret document”. The then Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters in Islamabad that Imran’s abuse of an official secret document had harmed Pakistan’s foreign relations.

The next month, just days after The Intercept published its report, Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) registered an FIR against Imran under Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act 1923 for making the contents of the classified cable public. Offences under Section 5, if proved in a court of law, involve punishment of imprisonment from two to 14 years, and in some cases even a death sentence, a report by Geo News said.

In August, Imran was convicted and sentenced to three years in prison in the Toshakhana graft case. While that sentence was later suspended, he has remained behind bars pending the court ruling on the cypher case. He is also barred from running in the upcoming elections in January 2024.