Pakistan court strikes down notification to keep former PM Imran Khan in judicial lockup

The Islamabad High Court has declared null and void the official notification for the jail trial of former prime minister Imran Khan in the cipher case, in which he is charged with leaking state secrets. The court stated that the government's notification for the jail trial was illegal but added that there is no bar on a jail trial in extraordinary circumstances. The court upheld the appointment of the trial judge and accepted an appeal against the verdict of its single-member bench. The fate of Khan's trial remains uncertain pending further actions by the government.