10 year jail term in Cipher case
PTI founder Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been given 10-year prison sentences in the Cipher case, reported Pakistan media.
A Pakistani court sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan to 10 years in jail after finding him guilty of violating the nation’s Official Secrets Act by making a diplomatic cable public when he was in power.
A special court judge Abual Hasnat Muhammad Zulqarnain handed down the order on Tuesday, Imran Khan’s lawyer Shoaib Shaheen said in a text message. His former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was also convicted for 10 years in the same case, he said.
Imran Khan can appeal against the verdict in a higher court.
The case pertains to allegations that Imran Khan had shared contents of a secret cable sent by the country’s ambassador in Washington to the government in Islamabad.
Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said both Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had been sentenced to 10 years each by a special court. It said the party would challenge the decision and called it a “sham case”.
Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been given 10-year prison sentences by a Pakistan Court in the controversial Cipher case.
Pakistan’s state media and a spokesman for PTI confirmed the jail term meted out to the Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the case related to leaking state documents, popularly called Cipher case
“Former prime minister Imran Khan and PTI (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf) vice-president Qureshi have been sentenced to 10 years each inside prison in the cypher case,” a spokesman for the party told AFP.
According to Zulfiqar Bukhari, spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, the court announced the verdict at a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi.
Authorities say Imran Khan and his deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi have the right to appeal Tuesday’s ruling in the case.
Former cricketer for Pakistan men’s cricket team, Imran Khan had been ousted through no-confidence in the parliament in April 2022. Khan is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in a graft case.
The latest development comes ahead of the scheduled 8 February parliamentary elections in Pakistan.
Although Imran Khan will not be on the ballot for the 8 February Pakistan Elections, he remains a potent political force because of his grassroots following and anti-establishment rhetoric.
Imran Khan has alleged that the legal cases against him were a plot to sideline him ahead of the vote.
Media reports had earlier stated that jailed Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party could be banned if its founder and former prime minister and other top brass are convicted in the cases relating to the May 9 violent incidents and violation of the Secrets Act in the cipher case.
With Tuesday’s court verdict, the PTI’s chances of contesting the Pakistan General Elections seem narrow. Imran Khan and PTI vice chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is also the former foreign minister, have been incarcerated at the Adiala Jail at Rawalpindi for over six months.
Pakistan has witnessed violent demonstrations since after Imran Khan’s May 2023 arrest. Authorities have cracked down on his supporters and party since then.
The Pakistan election commission has not just snatched away the party’s cricket bat symbol but also rejected the nomination papers of both Khan and Qureshi on various pretexts.
The PTI has earlier demanded that the ongoing proceedings of unconstitutional trial in the ‘false and fabricated’ cipher case should be annulled instantly and the party supremo Imran Khan and Vice Chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi should be released forthwith.
The jail sentence against Imran and Qureshi comes a little over a month after the Supreme Court granted them bail in the case against surety bonds of Rs 1 million each. A few days later, Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb stopped the special court from further proceedings till January 11, noting there were “legal errors” in the case.
Despite the repeated indictment and now the jail verdict, both have claimed innocence and alleged that “powerful people” behind the cipher case had made them the scapegoat.
Imran alleged that the trial was nothing less than a “joke” as both the prosecution and defence team belonged to the government.
The verdict comes right before the February 8 general elections where Imran’s party is contesting against a heavily armed state machinery that has taken away PTI’s ‘bat’ electoral symbol.
The cipher case
Imran Khan faced allegations that he violated the Official Secrets Act when he disclosed a secret diplomatic cable, called the cipher. This was sent by Pakistan’s embassy in Washington in March 2022. Khan reportedly lost possession of the diplomatic cable later.
Both Khan and Qureshi claimed that the cable had a threat from the US to topple the PTI government which was then in power in Pakistan.
Khan was ousted from the prime ministerial office in April 2022 after a no-confidence vote. Since being relieved of the premier post, more than 150 cases have been slapped against him.
Notably, the cipher case is Imran’s second conviction after he was sentenced to three years in jail in the Toshakhana case in August last year.
