ISLAMABAD: Former prime minister Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party on Tuesday described a special court’s decision to sentence him to prison for ten years, for leaking state secrets, as “political victimization,” while representatives of other political parties said the verdict was part of the country’s judicial process.
A special court handed Khan and his close aide, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a ten-year jail term each in a case in which they were accused of leaking state secrets. Khan’s party said it would appeal the verdict which comes less than two weeks before general elections.
The case, popularly called the “cipher case,” relates to an alleged diplomatic correspondence between Washington and Islamabad that Khan says was proof that his ouster as PM was part of a US conspiracy to remove him. Washington has repeatedly denied Khan’s accusations.
“This judgment is a clear manifestation of political victimization against Imran Khan as he was not provided a fair opportunity to defend himself,” PTI lawyer and spokesperson, Shoaib Shaheen, told a select group of foreign media representatives.
He said constitutional and legal guarantees given to the accused were violated in the case, adding that the prosecution was “in a hurry” to convict Khan ahead of national elections slated for Feb. 8.
“As due legal process was not followed in the case, therefore this conviction has no legal value,” Shaheen said. He said even Khan’s lawyers were not allowed to represent him in the case.
A special court established to hear the case held proceedings at Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail where the former prime minister has been incarcerated since August last year.
Shaheen said correspondence was declassified by the then federal cabinet and “some of the cabinet members were also privy to its content.”
“Imran Khan never disclosed contents of the cipher to the public, the cipher was never in the public domain,” he said.
He said the former prime minister had become the “will of the public,” vowing his opponents could not defeat him in the upcoming polls.
Meanwhile, representatives of Pakistan’s major political parties said the decision was a part of the country’s legal process. They said the case against Khan for leaking state secrets was a “sensitive issue” that could have been handled carefully by the former premier.
“This judgment against Imran Khan is part of the legal process and he has legal options available to file an appeal against it,” Pakistan Peoples Party’s (PPP) representative Sharmila Farooqi told Arab News.
Farooqi said the PPP believed everyone was entitled to the due legal process.
“We don’t believe in persecution of any political leader,” she said. “But this is a matter of a national document and he [Khan] used it for political gimmicks.”
Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) Senator Afnan Mushahid said the sentence handed to Khan was in accordance with the Official Secrets Act.
“Imran Khan was an apolitical person and did not become the prime minister through a political process, therefore he mismanaged everything including democracy and institutions,” Mushahid told Arab News.
“He leaked the cipher’s contents to the public as he wanted to get political mileage through it.”
Jamiat Ulelma-e-Islam Fazl (JUI-F) representative, Aslam Ghauri, said Khan’s sentence was part of the country’s judicial process. He said the former prime minister has the right to appeal against the verdict in the high court.
“We are not happy over his sentence, but this is what happens when you try to play with matters of national interest,” Ghauri told Arab News.
Jamat-e-Islami (JI) chief Siraj-ul-Haq, in a statement to the media, regretted the verdict, saying that the case’s hearings should have been made public.
He demanded that an independent and impartial commission probe the case.
“The American interference in the country’s affairs has been going on for the last seventy-six years and this has happened for the first time that American interference has been in discussion in our official circles,” Haq said.
Khan and most senior leaders of his party have been rejected as candidates for the Feb. 8 vote in what they say is a campaign by the military-led establishment to thwart their participation. The army says it does not interfere in political affairs.
Khan, 71, was ousted in April 2022 after falling out with Pakistan’s powerful military leaders who are widely believed to have backed him into power in 2018. In opposition, he waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against the military establishment which has directly ruled the nation for almost half of its history.
