Azam Khan had already told PMO about IK’s link with missing cipher

ISLAMABAD: Retired bureaucrat Azam Khan, who served as Principal Secretary to the former premier during the PTI government, had told the PM’s Office last year he had handed over the controversial cipher to the-then prime minister Imran Khan, but it was never returned.

Azam Khan was contacted by the Shehbaz Sharif government last year to inquire about the whereabouts of the missing cipher copy. In his response, he said he had handed over the cipher to Imran Khan.

Copies of the much-discussed cipher were sent to five key authorities by the Foreign Ministry in March last year, but except for the Prime Minister’s Office all others had returned the document to the FO after one month as per the standard operating procedure.

The News has already reported months back the designated joint secretary of the PM’s Office, who is authorised to receive and keep such a document in his safe custody after showing it to the prime minister, had never received the cipher copy.

The PM Office files do not have any record of this particular cipher, which upon inquiry was found to have been handed over to the then prime minister Imran Khan by his Principal Secretary Azam Khan. The PM’s Office only has the manipulated minutes of the cipher, as was found discussed in the leaked audio of Imran Khan, Azam Khan, Asad Umar and Shah Mehmood Qureshi last year.

It was reported by this newspaper that the Foreign Ministry, soon after receiving the cipher from its ambassador in Washington, decided to send its copies to five key authorities — Prime Minister, Foreign Minister, Foreign Secretary, Army Chief and DG ISI. It is the Foreign Ministry’s decision who should be sent such a cipher keeping in view the nature of sensitivity or importance.

Copies were dispatched to all concerned. In the case of ex-prime minister, a deputy secretary to the Principal Secretary to PM was called by the Foreign Ministry and handed over the copy of the cipher in a sealed envelope with the direction to immediately deliver it to Azam Khan. Azam Khan was informed via mobile phone by the deputy secretary about the sealed envelope, but the former directed to present the same to him the next morning in his office. It was done.

Upon the PM Office’s preliminary inquiry, conducted by the present government over the missing cipher copy from the PM’s record, Azam Khan had informed it that he had handed over the copy of the cipher to Imran Khan.

Under the established SoPs, such a cipher is formally received by a joint secretary of the PM’s Office. The joint secretary shows it to the prime minister and then keeps it in his safe custody. After one month, copies of cipher are returned to the Foreign Ministry, which secures all these documents in its safest closets.

However, in this case, neither the cipher was returned to the Foreign Ministry nor the PM’s Office, or its concerned joint secretary have any clue in their official record about the entry, movement or whereabouts of this document.