ISLAMABAD – The Islamabad High Court has restricted Prime Minister Imran Khan from disclosing a ‘threat letter’, saying the move amount to breaching section 5 of the Official Secrets Act.
Chief Justice IHC Justice Athar Minallah made the remarks after a petitioner moved court to stop the premier from making the secret documents public.
In a written judgment, the court told PM Imran not to violate his oath. IHC CJ ruled that Prime Minister is an elected leader of the treasury benches and he would not disclose any information or act in breach of section 5 of the Official Secrets Act, 1923.
Section 5 of the Official Secrets Act says no document in possession of a public office holder can be disclosed to a person other than to whom he is authorized to communicate it.
The development comes as PM Imran announced to make the letter public. Khan reportedly shared some details from ‘foreign threat letter’ with senior journalists and cabinet members, asserting that the document was “authentic.”
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Meanwhile, the original letter hasn’t been shown to journalists however some of the contents of the letter have been revealed which is reportedly a conversation between two officials of Pakistan and the other country.
Samaa News quoting anchor Imran Khan reported that the letter was sent by Pakistan envoy to the US Asad Majeed Khan after his meeting with the US secretary of state while some other journalists said that the letter was not written by a foreign government but by an ambassador and contained an assessment of bilateral relations between Pakistan and a western state.
