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Pakistan’s High Court has overturned the conviction of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan for leaking state secrets, his lawyer and his party announced on Monday, but Khan will remain in prison for the time being as he was convicted in a separate case.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s highest court has overturned the conviction of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan for leaking state secrets, his lawyer and his party said on Monday, but Khan will remain in prison for the time being as he was convicted in a separate case.
Khan, 71, has been jailed since August last year after being sentenced to 10 years in prison by a lower court for publishing classified cables sent by Pakistan’s ambassador to Washington to Islamabad in 2022.
Imran Khan had challenged his conviction in the Islamabad High Court but the court, in its order on Monday, said “the instant appeal is allowed”, adding that Imran Khan has been acquitted.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who served as foreign minister during Khan’s tenure from 2018 to 2022, was also acquitted, marking a major victory for the jailed leader.
“Thankfully, the verdict has been overturned,” Naeem Panjuta, legal spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, said in a post on social media platform “X” shortly after the Islamabad High Court announced the verdict.
Khan, who visited Moscow shortly before Russia invaded Ukraine, claims the secret cables are evidence of a plot by the Pakistani military and Washington to topple his government in 2022. The US and Pakistani militaries deny the allegations.
The state secrets case was one of four on which Khan was convicted in the run-up to Pakistan’s general elections in February – the other two cases have been suspended while he appeals.
But despite Monday’s acquittal, former cricketer Khan will remain in prison serving a seven-year sentence in a separate case related to his marriage to his third wife, Bushra Khan (aka Bushra Bibi), which goes against Islamic tradition.
A ruling on the couple’s appeal against the sentence was postponed last week and the case transferred to another court after the judge recused himself following accusations of bias by Bibi’s ex-husband, according to Khan’s lawyers.
“We will celebrate this victory,” Ali Zafar, another of Khan’s lawyers, said in a television interview, adding that he expected acquittals in other cases facing Khan.
“Great victory”
“This is a major political and legal victory,” journalist and political analyst Mazhar Abbas told Reuters, but cautioned that it was too early to say Khan would be released anytime soon.
Khan is also named as a defendant in several other cases, including on charges of inciting violence against the state.
Khan is at odds with the country’s powerful military, which he accuses of targeting him and his party, an accusation it denies and wants him and his supporters to stand trial for attacking state facilities during violent protests against his arrest last year.
Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, were barred from standing in February’s elections, but candidates backed by the jailed leader still won the most seats. They did not have the numbers to form a government, and a rival coalition led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif took power instead.
The government has argued that Khan violated provisions of the Official Secrets Act by revealing the contents of secret diplomatic cables, and prosecutors said they were waiting for the detailed ruling before deciding whether to appeal the Supreme Court’s acquittal.
“It is true that national security documents were used for political purposes,” government legal spokesman Akeel Malik said at a press conference after the verdict, adding that the government would not compromise on national security.
Disclaimer: This post has been auto-published from an agency feed without any modifications to the text and has not been reviewed by an editor.
(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed (Reuters))
