Image Credit- AFP
A Pakistani special court has convicted Imran Khan,
the former captain of Pakistan and current prime minister, to ten years in
prison. He is charged with failing to surrender a diplomatic document following
his dismissal from the prime minister’s position in 2022. Despite the
suspension of his sentence, he remains incarcerated since August 2023 for an
unrelated charge.
A special court was called to hear the cases of Shah
Mahmood Qureshi, a prominent member of Imran’s political party, the Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Imran himself after the latter was accused of
violating the Official Secrets Act, a legislation from the British era. Qureshi
was also given a term of ten years.
The PTI’s official Twitter account issued a statement,
calling the ruling “a sham trial and a complete mockery and disregard of
law”.
Imran has continuously claimed that the United States
of America was behind the no-confidence vote that ousted him from office and
that the disputed document demonstrated US diplomatic pressure to remove him.
The US news outlet The Intercept, which claimed to have had access to the
sensitive material, released an article in response, lending additional
credence to this accusation. According to the story, the US State Department
threatened to isolate Pakistan if Imran was not removed, but that “all would
be forgiven” if he was.
Only nine days remain before Pakistan holds its
elections following this most recent incident. There hasn’t been any opinion
research done before the elections, but the most current independent surveys
indicate that Imran is the most well-liked politician in the nation.
Following his arrest by paramilitary security forces
in May 2023, the nation saw violent protests that resulted in a multi-day
internet outage; tens of thousands of his political allies were also detained.
Not only is the party that Imran led to victory in the 2018 elections
prohibited from standing in these elections, but Imran himself is prohibited
from holding public office for a period of five years.
Lawyers for Imran and Queshi declared they would file
an appeal with the High Court against this judgement.