Pakistan’s former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a close aide of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan, has been arrested from his house here under the Official Secrets Act in connection with the leak of a confidential diplomatic cable.
Qureshi, 67, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s vice-chairman, was arrested on Saturday night and taken to the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) headquarters soon after he demanded that a level playing field be provided to the embattled party during the upcoming general election.
Qureshi, a two-time foreign minister, was arrested under the Official Secrets Act for violating the secrecy of the official cable sent by the Pakistani embassy in the US to the foreign office when he was foreign minister.
On Sunday, Qureshi appeared in a sessions court, which granted the FIA a day’s remand of the senior leader in the cipher case.
Judicial magistrate Ehtisham Alam Khan issued the orders, asking the body to produce him before the court on Monday.
“I have not shared any such document with any unrelated person,” Qureshi said while talking to the media before being sent on remand.
Qureshi said no secret code of Pakistan has been compromised. He said he had “acted responsibly”. “This is a politically motivated case,” he added.
Khan has for long mentioned the missing cable as evidence of a “foreign conspiracy” to remove him as Prime Minister in April last year.
The development came only two days after the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Khan was named in an FIR registered by the FIA under Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act 1923 in the case.
