By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD : A Pakistani court on Tuesday sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to 10 years in jail each for leaking a secret document that they said revealed a U.S. plan to topple Khan’s government in 2022.
The verdict, delivered by Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain at a high-security prison where the two men are being held, came amid a tense political atmosphere ahead of the general elections on Feb. 8.
Khan, the founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, and Qureshi, a senior PTI leader, were convicted under the Official Secrets Act 2023, a law dating back to British colonial rule.
The case, known as the cipher case, stems from a diplomatic cable that the Federal Investigation Agency claims was never returned by Khan when he was removed from power in a parliamentary vote in 2022.
The PTI has maintained that the document contained a threat from the United States to remove Khan as prime minister.
The PTI has also accused the government of using the case as a pretext to crack down on the party and its supporters ahead of the elections. Earlier this month, the Supreme Court upheld a decision by the election commission to revoke the party’s iconic bat symbol and declare its internal elections as “unconstitutional”. The party then fielded its candidates as independents with various symbols.
The special court, which was set up at the Adiala Jail last year, had indicted Khan and Qureshi twice in the case, first in October and then in December, after the Islamabad High Court had declared the previous proceedings null and void on technical grounds.
Both men had pleaded not guilty and challenged the court’s legality and jurisdiction. They had also applied for bail, which was granted by the Supreme Court in December, but they remained in custody in other cases.
Mr. Qureshi was expected to be released after his bail, but he was assaulted and re-arrested by the police in a new case related to the May 9 protests, when thousands of PTI supporters took to the streets to protest a brief arrest of Khan in corruption charges.
The special court had resumed the trial last month and had appointed state lawyers to represent the PTI leaders, as the court alleged that the PTI lawyers were deliberately delaying the proceedings.
Khan had denounced the trial as a “joke” and said that the prosecution and the defense were both working for the government.
The verdict on Tuesday was delivered verbally by Judge Zulqarnain in the presence of Khan and Qureshi.
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