Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan sentenced to 10 Years in Jail on Tuesday, less than two weeks before the country votes in an election his party has been restricted from contesting.
Khan’s sentence was handed down inside Adiala jail, where he has been confined for much of the time since his August arrest.
The same sentence was handed down on Shah Mehmood Qureshi, vice-president of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party who served as foreign minister under Imran Khan.
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi is a former cricketer and 22nd prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 until April 2022.
“Former prime minister Imran Khan and PTI vice-president Qureshi have been sentenced to 10 years each,” a spokesman for the party told AFP.
State media also reported the convictions and sentences. The case against both men related to allegations they leaked classified state documents.
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.
Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan sentenced to 10 Years in Jail in cipher case
Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi sentenced to 10 years in prison for exposing official secrets by making a diplomatic cable public when he was in power. Imran Khan can appeal against the imprisonment in higher court.
Both Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had been sentenced to 10 years each by a special court. It is said the party would challenge the decision and called it a “sham case”. Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said
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.
Also, it is reported that Imran’s nomination papers had been rejected primarily on the grounds of being convicted in the Toshakhana case, in which he was sentenced to three years of imprisonment. The case, filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), had accused Imran of not mentioning the details of state gifts in his tax declarations.
Imran’s nomination papers from NA-122 were also dismissed on the grounds of the proposer not being a voter from the constituency.
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— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 30, 2024
Ending hopes for Pakistan’s former premier Imran Khan, the Lahore High Court on Wednesday upheld the rejection of his nomination papers for the February 8 general elections.
Who is Imran Khan?
Imran Khan is a Pakistani politician, former cricketer, and philanthropist who has been active in the political arena. Born on October 5, 1952, in Lahore, Pakistan, Imran Khan gained international fame as a cricketer before transitioning to politics.
In cricket, Imran Khan was one of the world’s leading all-rounders and captained the Pakistan national cricket team to its first-ever World Cup victory in 1992. After retiring from cricket, he entered politics and founded the political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in 1996.
Imran Khan has been a prominent figure in Pakistani politics, advocating for anti-corruption measures, good governance, and social justice. He served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan, having assumed office on August 18, 2018.
Early life and his contribution to Pakistan Politics
He is the only son of Ikramullah Khan Niazi, a civil engineer, and his wife Shaukat Khanum, and has four sisters.
Khan’s mother was of Ormur descent, who are a separate ethnic group but are included in the Pashtun tribal system, and whose ancestors had been settled in the Jalandhar district of Punjab for centuries. Following the independence and establishment of Pakistan, she migrated to Lahore with the rest of Khan’s maternal relatives.
He had numerous relationships during his bachelor life. Imran Khan Married thrice but none his marriage was successful. He had two children from his first wife Jemima Goldsmith who is an English Journalist and screenwriter.
After the result of 2018 Pakistan election, Imran Khan said he would try to remake Pakistan based on the ideology of Muhammad Ali Jinah.
During his government, Khan addressed a balance of payment crisis with a bailout from the IMF (International Monetary fund). He presided over a shrinking current account deficit, and limited defence spending to curtail the fiscal deficit, leading to some general economic growth.
On 10 April 2022, Khan became the country’s first prime minister to be ousted through a no-confidence motion vote in parliament. On 22 August 2022, Khan was charged by the Pakistani police under anti-terror laws after Khan accused the police and judiciary of detaining and torturing his close aide.