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Pakistani Court Sentences Imran Khan to 10 Years in Prison for Leaking State Secrets

By Gibran Naiyyar Peshimam and Ariba Shahid

ISLAMABAD – A court in Pakistan has handed down a 10-year prison sentence to former Prime Minister Imran Khan, finding him guilty of leaking state secrets. This is the harshest sentence Khan has received and comes just days before a general election. The special court also sentenced former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to 10 years in the same case.

The court found Khan, 71, guilty of publicly disclosing the contents of a secret cable sent by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad, according to an announcement by Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Khan, who is also a cricket superstar, was previously sentenced to three years in a corruption case in August, which had already ruled him out of the upcoming election on Feb. 8.

The written verdict from the court is expected to be issued within a day or two, and Khan’s PTI party has already stated that they will challenge the ruling.

“We don’t accept this illegal decision,” posted Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, on the social media platform X.

Despite the sentencing, the PTI has not called for protests or demonstrations ahead of the election. However, the party did report that three of its members were killed in a bomb explosion in Pakistan’s Balochistan region on the same day Khan was sentenced, although the responsible parties remain unknown.

Khan’s legal team claims that they were not given an opportunity to represent him or cross-examine witnesses during the trial. The proceedings took place in the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

Ali Zafar, another lawyer representing Khan, stated in an interview with ARY television that given the circumstances of the trial and sentencing, the chances of the case being overturned on appeal were “100%.”

Khan’s aide, Zulfikar Bukhari, believes that the conviction is an attempt to weaken support for Khan, but he remains optimistic, saying, “People will now make sure they come out and vote in larger numbers.”

Khan has been in jail since August last year and his legal team had hoped to secure his release. However, with this latest conviction, it is unlikely that he will be released even as the charges are contested in a higher court.

According to Ahsan Iqbal, a senior aide to Khan’s main political opponent Nawaz Sharif, the verdict was not harsh enough given the alleged crime’s impact on national interests.

Observers believe that Sharif’s party is the frontrunner to form the next government. In 2018, Sharif and his daughter, Maryam Nawaz, were convicted and imprisoned on corruption charges just days before the general election, which is believed to have helped Khan win. Both Sharif and Khan blame the military for their legal troubles.

The timing of Khan’s sentencing right before the election raises concerns about the election’s credibility and its impact on the country’s political stability at a time when Pakistan is going through an economic crisis.

Domestically, the election comes as Pakistan is relying on a $3 billion bailout from the International Monetary Fund to navigate a path toward economic recovery and avoid a sovereign default.

Khan has faced numerous legal challenges since being ousted from power in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in 2022. He maintains that the secret cable referred to in the case is evidence of a conspiracy between the Pakistani military and the U.S. government to overthrow his administration following his visit to Moscow, which occurred just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Both the U.S. government and the Pakistani military deny these allegations.

The PTI suffered a setback earlier this month when a court upheld an Election Commission decision to strip the party of its traditional election symbol, the cricket bat. Khan’s candidates are now running as independents, many of them on the run, due to what the PTI claims is a military-backed crackdown, although the military denies involvement.

Khan’s media team shared a message from the imprisoned leader on X ahead of the verdict, in which he urged his supporters to vote for candidates endorsed by him and emphasized the importance of peaceful action.

Source: Yahoo News