Pak ex-foreign min arrested for leak of diplomatic cable

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, a close aide of jailed former PM Imran Khan, has been arrested from his house in Islamabad under the Official Secrets Act in connection with the leakage of a confidential diplomatic cable.

Qureshi, 67, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party's vice chairman, was arrested on Saturday and taken to the Federal Investigation Agency's (FIA) headquarters soon after he demanded that a level-playing field be provided to the embattled party during the upcoming general elections. Qureshi was arrested under the Official Secrets Act for violating the secrecy of the official cable sent by the Pakistani embassy in the US to the foreign office when he was the foreign minister. Imran Khan and his party have claimed that the leaked cable was evidence of a "foreign conspiracy" to remove him as the PM in April last year.

On Sunday, Qureshi appeared in a sessions court, which granted the FIA a day's remand. He will be produced before the court on Monday "I have not shared any such document with any unrelated person," he told the media. He said no secret code of Pakistan has been compromised. "This is a politically motivated case." The development came only two days after Khan was named in an FIR registered by the FIA under the Official Secrets Act 1923 in the case.

Geo News reported on Sunday that another senior leader of PTI, Asad Umar, was arrested in Islamabad in the case.