By Staff Reporter
ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court on Monday ordered the transfer of former Prime Minister Imran Khan from a remote jail in Punjab to a better facility in near the capital, Islamabad, where he faces charges of leaking state secrets.
Khan, the chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, was arrested on Aug. 5 after being convicted in a separate case of illegally selling luxury gifts from foreign leaders when he was prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
He was sentenced to 10 years in prison, but the Islamabad High Court suspended his sentence on Aug. 29 pending an appeal.
However, he remained in custody in connection with another case, known as the cipher case, in which he is accused of disclosing classified information at a public meeting.
In the state secrets case, Khan is charged with making public the contents of a confidential cable sent by Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States and using it for political gain, according to the Federal Investigation Agency.
Khan alleges that the cable proves that the United States had pressed Pakistan’s military to orchestrate the fall of his government because he had visited Russia shortly before its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Washington and the military have denied Khan’s accusations.
The cipher case is being heard by a special court at the Attock jail, about 50 miles west of Islamabad, where Khan was taken after his arrest instead of the Adiala jail in Rawalpindi, near the capital.
Khan’s lawyers had petitioned the Islamabad High Court to transfer him to Adiala jail, arguing that he was entitled to better class facilities as a former prime minister and that holding him at Attock jail was illegal and violated his fundamental rights.
Chief Justice Aamer Farooq of the Islamabad High Court on Monday ruled in favor of Khan’s transfer and sought a response from the government on why he was kept at Attock jail.
“Shift the PTI chairman to Adiala Jail,” Justice Farooq said during the hearing.
Sher Afzal Marwat, one of Khan’s lawyers, told reporters outside the court that they had “finally been granted justice” to some extent.
“It is a little bit of justice but we are glad about it,” he said.
Marwat also requested the court to provide Khan with an exercise machine as he was a “sportsman”.
Khan, a former cricket star who led Pakistan to victory in the 1992 cricket World Cup, has denied any wrongdoing and accused former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government and the powerful military of political victimization.
Zulfikar Bukhari, a spokesman for Khan’s party, said arrangements were being made to move him to Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail on the court’s order.
“Arrangements are being made,” Bukhari told reporters when asked if Khan had been moved to the Rawalpindi prison or was in the process of being shifted.
Khan’s lawyer Naeem Haider Panjutha told reporters about his transfer plea hearing, saying the Islamabad High Court asked the prosecution team why Khan was being kept at Attock jail when a trial court had ordered authorities to send him to Adiala prison.
“We saw that the prosecution did not have any authentic arguments in response and they looked helpless,” Panjutha said.
Khan also faces a range of other legal cases he says are politically motivated.
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