Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan, Shah Mahmood Qureshi get 10-year jail term in cipher case

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.

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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 stands with Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who defended Pakistan and stood for Haqeeqi Azadi. No such sham trial can change what happened in March- April 2022, on the orders of Donald Lu,” the PTI wrote on X (formally Twitter)

The PTI added that it was a “complete mockery and disregard of law in the cypher case”, urging people to vote in the February 8 general elections.

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“InshAllah Kaptaan and Vice Kaptaan will be back soon, and this sentence will be in adustbin in theappeal stage,” it added.

What is the Pakistan cipher case?

• The cipher case is one of more than 150 cases against Imran Khan. Other charges range from contempt of court to terrorism and inciting violence.
• In the cipher case, Imran Khan is alleged to have waved a confidential document — a classified cable — at a rally after he was toppled. The document has not been made public by either the government or Imran Khan’s lawyers, but was apparently diplomatic correspondence between the Pakistani ambassador to Washington and the ministry of foreign affairs in Islamabad.
• During the speech, Imran Khan claimed the document was proof he was being threatened and that his ouster was a US conspiracy, allegedly executed by the military and the government in Pakistan. The US and Pakistani officials have denied the claim.
• During the trial, the PTI feared Khan could be sentenced to death for treason. Imran Khan has maintained his innocence and said he didn’t disclose the exact contents of the cable. Qureshi was accused of manipulating the contents of a diplomatic cable to gain political advantage.

Trial against Imran Khan

The special court had begun the cipher trial afresh last month at the Adiala district jail after Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi were indicted for a second time in the case on December 13, Dawn News reported.

The former premier and Qureshi, who is also behind bars, were first indicted in the case in October. Both had pleaded not guilty. The Islamabad high court had termed the government's notification for a jail trial “erroneous” and scrapped the entire proceedings.

Taking to social media platform X, Imran Khan said, “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 added, “Remember that Cipher is a case which has been declared null and void twice by the Islamabad High Court and ordered to be re-tried because both times the case was tried to be run in violation of the constitution and the law. Then the Supreme Court has also given me bail in this case because the whole building of this case has been built on lies, bullying, conspiracy and deceit.”

Earlier this month, Pakistan's caretaker federal government challenged the IHC's decision to declare its notification regarding the jail trial of the PTI leader in the cipher case as null and void.

It reported that the government filed a petition in the apex court to overturn the high court's decision saying that the HC did not evaluate the facts of the case properly. It contended that the IHC did not have the authority to declare a special court formed to hold cipher trial of the former premier invalid.

Geo News reported that in November last year, the IHC nullified the notification for conducting PTI founder Imran Khan's jail trial in the case registered on charges of leaking state secrets. An IHC division bench, comprising justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb and justice Saman Rafat Imtiaz, announced the verdict on November 21, 2023, on Imran Khan's intra-court appeal against a single-member bench's decision to approve his jail trial in the cypher case under the Official Secrets Act, 1923.