30-1-2024 (ISLAMABAD) Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, has been sentenced to 10 years in jail for the disclosure of classified information, according to his media team. The special court found Khan guilty of publicly revealing the contents of a secret cable sent by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the former foreign minister, was also handed a 10-year sentence in the same case.
This is the second conviction for Khan in recent months, ensuring that the popular former prime minister will remain behind bars and away from the public eye leading up to the general elections on February 8th.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, led by Khan, has stated that it will challenge the “sham” conviction and sentence. Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, expressed the party’s refusal to accept the illegal decision in a social media post.
Zulfikar Bukhari, an aide to Khan, revealed that the legal team was not given an opportunity to represent the former prime minister or cross-examine witnesses. He further claimed that the proceedings took place in jail. Bukhari denounced the conviction as an effort to weaken support for Khan, asserting that it will motivate people to vote in larger numbers.
Khan had already been sentenced to three years in jail in a separate corruption case, effectively disqualifying him from participating in the upcoming general elections.
Despite hopes from Khan’s legal team for his release from jail, where he has been held since August of last year, the recent conviction makes it unlikely. The charges will now be contested in a higher court.
Since being ousted from power in a parliamentary vote of no confidence in 2022, Khan has faced numerous legal battles. He claims that the cable at the center of this case provides evidence of a conspiracy orchestrated by the Pakistani military and the US government to overthrow his administration after his visit to Moscow prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. These allegations have been denied by both Washington and the Pakistani military.
Previously, Khan had stated that the contents of the cable were already in the media through other sources.
Khan’s PTI party suffered a significant setback when a court upheld the Election Commission’s decision to strip the party of its traditional election symbol, the cricket bat. As a result, PTI candidates are now running as independents, with many of them facing a crackdown allegedly supported by the country’s powerful military. The military denies any involvement.
The upcoming February 8th election is expected to have a heavy military security presence at polling stations due to recent attacks by Islamist militants.
Analysts speculate that the military has thrown its support behind former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, who returned from self-imposed exile last year and has seen multiple convictions overturned by the courts.
The military’s deployment at polling stations has been a source of controversy in the past, with several political leaders accusing the army of using troops to assist their favored party rather than providing security. These allegations have been denied by the military.
