A Pakistani court has issued a 10-year jail sentence to former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a case related to the leaking of state secrets, according to reports. The special court, established under the Official Secrets Act, delivered the verdict during a hearing at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Both Khan and Qureshi were indicted for a second time in the cipher case, with the trial restarted last month. Khan, taking to social media platform X, criticized the trial, claiming it was predetermined and politically motivated.
He 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.”
Khan further stated, “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.”
He urged the public to remain peaceful and use their vote on February 8 to seek justice for those wrongly imprisoned, expressing confidence that the day would be a victory against the alleged planners of the London plan.
Earlier this month, Pakistan’s caretaker federal government challenged the Islamabad High Court’s decision to declare its notification regarding the jail trial of Imran Khan in the cipher case as null and void. The government filed a petition in the apex court to overturn the High Court’s decision, arguing that it did not properly evaluate the facts of the case.
In November last year, the IHC nullified the notification for conducting Imran Khan’s jail trial in the cipher case, registering charges of leaking state secrets. The IHC declared the notification “without lawful authority and no legal effect.” Imran’s cypher trial was restarted, but the IHC declared all proceedings in the case conducted by a special court after December 14, 2023, invalid.