Imran Khan was given a ten-year prison term for disclosing national secrets
Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, received a 10-year prison term for disclosing state secrets.
A special court in Pakistan on Tuesday sentenced Imran Khan, the founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the vice chairman, to ten years in jail in connection with the cipher case.
The diplomatic cable at issue in the cipher case is said to have vanished from Khan’s custody. Khan had said on several occasions both before to and during the no-confidence vote against him in the previous year that the cipher indicated a plot to unseat him as prime minister.
Ten witnesses had been up to give testimony in the case against Qureshi and Khan. They were brought by the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) of Pakistan, which filed a complaint against Khan and Qureshi in August for allegedly disclosing information about the official diplomatic correspondence in violation of the nation’s secret laws, according to PTI.
Khan and Qureshi were given post-arrest bail by the Supreme Court of Pakistan in December. Qureshi was supposed to be released on May 9, but the Dawn claimed that he was allegedly mistreated and re-arrested in a new case on May 9. Imran was still being held in other instances.
A vote of no confidence in Khan led to his resignation as Pakistan’s prime minister in April 2022. August 5, 2023 saw him go into jail after he was given a three-year prison term in the Toshakhana case by an Islamabad court. His jail sentence was served in the Attock District Jail.
The Islamabad High Court then postponed his sentence, but he was later detained in connection with the cipher case and held in the Attock prison on judicial remand.
