Anyone who incites or conspires to commit a crime is seen as the prime suspect; hence, the bail applications of former prime minister and Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan and former foreign minister and PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi cannot be approved.
This was stated in a detailed judgement by the Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Aamer Farooq over rejecting the bail pleas of the two PTI leaders implicated in the cipher case.
The 10-page verdict said that the charges against Imran contain maximum penalties of life in prison and death. Shah Mehmood Qureshi will also be seen in the same light. It explained that the court has to delicately approach bail where the charges propose maximum penalties of death and life in prison unless there was a concrete reason to grant bail.
It was further said that denying bail is not a penalty in itself.
Cancelling the bail, the court directed them to complete the trial in four weeks.