ISLAMABAD  -  The Federal Investigation Agency's Counter-Terrorism Wing has filed a case against former prime minister and Pa­kistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan for al­legedly misplacing a top secret diplomatic cipher.

According to FIA sources, serious charges have been lev­elled against Imran Khan over the matter. Though there is clear response from the FIA, yet a senior officer, on the con­dition of anonymity, stated that they had been instruct­ed by authorities to remain si­lent.

On July 25, the PTI chair­man had appeared before the joint investigation team (JIT) formed on the matter and pro­vided answers to questions posed by the officials for near­ly two hours.

Former prime minister Im­ran Khan at a rally in Islam­abad on March 27, 2022 had brandished a letter claiming that it was the evidence of an international conspiracy backed by the US to topple his government.

Last week, reports emerged that the JIT probing the cipher issue was nearing the con­clusion of its findings but the latest publication of alleged content of the secret cable document in an online Amer­ican news organisation has forced it to expand its inves­tigation to cover the aspect of the leak to the media.

The sources said the JIT was keen to see how and who had leaked the document’s con­tent to the media and wheth­er the content of the cipher, as shared by The Intercept, is original or exaggerated.

These sources hoped that the probe would conclude within a week or 10 days.

Retention of the ci­pher copy by the for­mer prime minister, the source said, is an ad­mitted fact. It is an of­fence, the source said. Twisting and manipula­tion of the secret docu­ment for political gain is also a violation of the law, added the source. The JIT, which was con­stituted by the for­mer government, had already grilled Khan, Fawad Chaudhry, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Asad Umar, and Foreign Office officials.