Imran Khan grilled in Attock Jail in missing cypher case; admits losing confidential diplomatic cable

During interrogation, Imran Khan admitted to losing a diplomatic cable, saying he couldn’t recall where he kept it, according to newspaper reports. Imran Khan also denied that the paper he waved at a public gathering last year, days before the ouster of his government, was the diplomatic cable.

Jailed former prime minister Imran Khan admitted misplacing a confidential diplomatic cable as he was interrogated by Pakistan's top investigative agency at the Attock Jail in a case filed under the Official Secrets Act for wrongful use of the classified document, according to media reports on Sunday.

Khan, 70, is currently serving a three-year jail term after he was sentenced by a court in a corruption case earlier this month.

The cable in question was the same document Khan had for long mentioned as evidence of a U.S.-backed conspiracy to remove him as the prime minister last year.

Khan had waved a document at a rally days before his ouster as Prime Minister in April 2022, saying it was proof of foreign conspiracy.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman's interrogation in the matter comes days after he was booked under the Official Secrets Act for making the content of a confidential diplomatic cable from the country's embassy in the U.S. public.

The counter-terrorism wing (CTW) of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) on Saturday visited the former Prime Minister in the jail, media reports said.

FIA sources said a six-member joint investigation team, led by FIA Deputy Director Ayaz Khan, met Khan in the office of the Attock Jail's deputy superintendent and interrogated him for over an hour, the Dawn newspaper reported.