ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan government on Thursday challenged in the Supreme Court the acquittal of former prime minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cipher case.

The case pertains to the incident in which Khan showed a piece of paper – allegedly a copy of a diplomatic communication – at a public rally in Islamabad, claiming it as proof of a conspiracy against his government by a foreign power, referring to US diplomat Donald Lu, who has been at the centre of the cipher controversy.

He had brandished the cipher paper just two weeks before the ouster of the PTI government in April 2022 through a vote of no-confidence in Parliament.

Reader correspondent