Imran Khan, Ex-PM of Pakistan, Faces 10-Year Sentence for Revealing State Secrets. A Pakistani court sentenced Ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan and one of his party members (Shah Mehmood Qureshi) liable for disclosing public secrets on Tuesday and sentenced them to ten years in prison each. Ex-PM’s supporters instantly criticized the decision.
Setback for Imran Khan
It was also another setback for Khan, an Islamist politician and former cricket star who was removed from leadership in April 2022 following a no-confidence vote in Parliament. I.K. is presently serving a three-year prison sentence related to a fraud case.
Chief spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, Zulfiqar Bukhari claims that the ruling was made by a special court that was established at the prison in Rawalpindi, a garrison city where Khan is being imprisoned. According to the authorities, I.K. and his deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was also given a 10-year term, are entitled to appeal the decision made on Tuesday in the Cipher case.
Details of the Ruling
On Wednesday, Khan’s legal team planned to file an appeal of the conviction with the Islamabad High Court.
The decision was made ahead of Pakistan’s parliamentary elections on February 8, which Khan is not permitted to participate in due to a prior criminal conviction.
Because of his grassroots support and rhetoric against the establishment, Khan has a strong political presence despite not being on the ballot. He claims that the lawsuits he was facing were an attempt to keep him out of the race in the election.
Following the Ex-Prime minister’s arrest in May 2023, there were violent protests in Pakistan, and since then, the government has clamped down on his party and supporters.
Pre-poll rigging
According to Pakistan’s human rights committee, “pre-poll rigging” makes it unlikely that there will be a free and fair parliamentary election next month. It also conveyed concern over leaders’ and senior party members’ candidacies being rejected by the authorities.
There are over 150 cases against the subject, including the Cipher case. Additional counts include encouraging violence, terrorism, and contempt of court.
In the Cipher case, Ex-PM is accused of displaying a classified cable, which is a secret document, at a rally following his overthrow. The government and Khan’s attorneys have not made the document available to the public, but it appears to be official correspondence between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad and the Pakistani ambassador in Washington.
In his speech, Ex-PM claimed that the document proved he was being threatened and that the Pakistani government and military were involved in a plot by the United States to remove him. The notion has been refuted by officials from Pakistan and Washington.
In a statement, Subject’s party said that it supports Qureshi and Khan because they “defended Pakistan and stood for real independence.” According to PTI, the court did not even permit Ex-PM and Qureshi’s attorneys to represent their clients, labeling the proceedings as a “sham trial.”
But, the party urged his followers to abstain from violence and maintain calm while a judicial appeal of the decision is being processed.
Subject’s longtime supporter Omar Ayub stated, “We should harness and channel these energies for the polling day” on February 8 to make sure Khan’s candidates win the vote “with a thumping majority.” He declared, “PTI will keep fighting to move Pakistan toward democracy so that the rule of law and the constitution are upheld.”
The PTI was worried that Khan would receive a death sentence for treason during the trial. He has steadfastly defended his innocence and claimed not to have revealed the precise contents of the wire. Qureshi was charged with fabricating information in a diplomatic cable to obtain political leverage.
The most recent decision, according to political analyst Muhammad Ali, was anticipated by both Khan and his deputy. He believed that the two men had “in fact damaged Pakistan’s diplomatic ties with the United States, and they also embarrassed Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States at the time, Asad Majeed,” according to Ali.
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