Former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi received the same sentence. Both have been banned from elections for five years. According to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leaders, the legal case is a "sham trial”. An appeal will be filed with the Supreme Court, but in the meantime, Pakistanis are set to go to the polls on 8 February.
Islamabad (AsiaNews/Agencies) – A little more than a week before Pakistan’s upcoming elections, former Prime Minister Imran Khan was sentenced to 10 years in prison for leaking state secrets.
Khan, who was ousted from power in April 2022 after a no-confidence vote in parliament, is already serving a three-year prison sentence on corruption charges at Rawalpindi's Adiala prison, where he has been held since August 2023.
The special court set up inside the prison also handed down a 10-year sentence to former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, vice president of Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).
The latter has been effectively excluded from the election after its candidates were banned from using its well-known symbol (a cricket bat, a nod to Khan’s great career in this sport).
The case involving leaked state secrets (one of the many legal cases Khan is facing) revolves around correspondence sent by Pakistan's ambassador in Washington.
According to the PTI, the document contained evidence of US cooperation in a plan to oust Khan from power.
According to the indictment, Khan never returned the cipher, which amounts to stealing diplomatic documents and causing damage to diplomatic relations. Such a charge can lead to life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
In March 2022, at a political rally, Khan waved a piece of paper that he said was a tangible proof of a foreign conspiracy against him.
After he was ousted from power, the former cricket star continued to stir up national politics, claiming that all the cases against him had one purpose, that of excluding him from elections.
While Khan's candidacy has already been rejected, Qureshi had been allowed to stand for election, but with today's conviction, both politicians are barred from participating in elections for the next five years.
Only local journalists were allowed to cover the trial and some media reported that the judge following the case had been ordered to expedite the proceedings, a point several PTI leaders stressed in their statements, calling the affair a “sham trial".
“We don't accept this illegal decision," Naeem Panjutha, a lawyer for the former PM, posted on X (formerly Twitter). PTI's lawyers said that they will appeal to the Islamabad High Court.
“The case was going good but in recent days the judge changed everything and this was a mistrial. A criminal trial needs to be a fair trial,” said PTI counsel Barrister Ali Zafar.
The Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N) instead backs the court decision. “The punishment is completely justified, and it was given via legal means,” said PML-N leader Rana Sanaullah.
“What the Supreme Court meted out to the PTI in terms of disqualifying a political party is completely different from jeopardising national security,” he added.
There is no doubt in his mind that the piece of paper Khan waved was a classified document.
According to some observers, in 2022 Khan lost the trust of the Pakistani military (which holds the real levers of politics). Since then, the government, led first by the PML-N and then by a caretaker cabinet set up specifically to lead the country until the elections, has tried to limit PTI’s influence by various methods.