Khan, the founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment along with Qureshi in the cipher case in January by Islamabad's special court set up under the Official Secrets Act.

While special prosecutor Hamid Ali Shah explained the cypher movement from the foreign ministry to the PM Office, Justice Farooq asked: “Is there any record of the cipher’s movement that it was handed over to the prime minister by the principal secretary?”

The controversy first emerged on March 27, 2022, when Khan less than a month before his ouster in April 2022 while addressing a public rally, waved a letter before the crowd, claiming that it was a cipher from a foreign nation that had conspired with his political rivals to have his government overthrown.