Khan sentenced to 10 years in jail on eve of national election
IMRAN KHAN, Pakistan’s former prime minister, has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for revealing state secrets, just days before a national election.
Yesterday’s ruling is the former cricket star turned politician’s second conviction in recent months and ensures he will remain in jail in the run up to next week’s parliamentary vote.
Mr Khan, who was ousted as prime minister following a no-confidence vote in April 2022, is already serving a three-year jail term after being convicted of corruption.
He has long accused Pakistan’s powerful military, which routinely interferes in the country’s politics, of orchestrating a campaign to keep him in jail and out of government.
Yesterday’s verdict in the so-called Cipher case was announced by a special court set up at a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where the former leader has been held since August last year. Khan’s deputy, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, also received a 10-year sentence.
Mr Khan, the founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-insaf (PTI) party is expected to appeal the conviction at the Islamabad High Court today.
He is facing more than 150 cases, with other charges ranging from contempt of court to terrorism and inciting violence.
Mr Khan has dismissed all of the charges brought against him as politically motivated.
In the Cipher case, he is alleged to have waved a confidential document – a classified cable – at a public rally in March 2022.
The document has not been made public by either the government or Khan’s lawyers but was apparently a piece of diplomatic correspondence sent by Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington to the ministry of foreign affairs in Islamabad when the 71-year-old was prime minister.
During the speech, Mr Khan claimed it was proof that his ousting was being engineered by the US and executed by Pakistan’s military and government after he visited Moscow just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Washington and Pakistani officials have denied the claim.
Yesterday’s ruling comes just days before the Feb 8 parliamentary elections in Pakistan – a vote from which Mr Khan is barred because of his previous criminal conviction.
The former cricketer remains a potent political force because of his grassroots following.