Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan acquitted in state secrets case, but will remain in jail
- Khan was convicted, along with his former foreign secretary, of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022
- He remains jailed for breaking Islamic law by marrying his wife Bushra Bibi too soon after her divorce, and has been found guilty of graft while PM
A Pakistan high court on Monday overturned a treason conviction against former prime minister Imran Khan, who remains in jail on other charges.
The conviction was one of three slapped on Khan in the run-up to February elections, which he claims were orchestrated to prevent his return to power.
The decision by a two-member bench at Islamabad High Court was announced by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq.
“This is the first big case which was part of the political victimisation against Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi which has been dashed to the ground,” Salman Safdar, a lawyer for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, said outside court.
“We will celebrate this victory,” another of his lawyers, Ali Zafar, said in a TV interview, adding that the other cases faced by Khan would result in acquittals too.
Khan was convicted along with Qureshi, his former foreign secretary, of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022.