Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi sentenced to 10 years in jail for leaking state secrets

Khan’s lawyer Naeem Panjutha took to social media to reject the sentence. “We don’t accept this illegal decision,” he said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

The court’s decision comes nine days before the election, which Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek e Insaf (PTI) party is contesting in without an election symbol and amid a state crackdown. Pakistan goes to polls on February 8, Thursday.

Khan, 71, and Qureshi, 67 are reportedly housed at Rawalpindi’s high-security Adiala jail. They were jailed in the case which alleged that they had violated the Official Secrets Act by disclosing the contents of a secret diplomatic cable — termed the cipher — which was sent by Pakistan’s embassy in Washington in March last year. The cipher had reportedly gone missing from Khan’s possession. The duo had claimed that the cable contained a threat from the United States to topple their government.

The cricketer-turned-politician had earlier termed the trial as nothing less than a “joke”, saying “The prosecution team and defence counsels both belong to the government.”

In a post on X, he had compared it to a “fixed match.” This is not a trial but a fixed match whose outcome was predetermined by the characters and planners of the London Plan and their seals. That is why I already know the decision of this case,” he wrote.

Khan was ousted from the Prime Minister’s post in April 2022 through a vote of no-confidence. More than 150 cases have been registered against him since his ouster from power.

(With inputs from Press Trust of India)