Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister and World Cup-winning captain, has been handed 10 years in prison by a special court in Pakistan. He stands accused of leaking state secrets, and the sentence seems part of an ongoing crackdown on his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), ahead of the upcoming general elections in the country. Imran has been accused of not returning a diplomatic document after he was removed as Prime Minister in 2022.
Imran has been in prison since August last year on a separate charge and, in this case, he was charged under the Official Secrets Act. His lawyers will appeal the sentence at the High Court. Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a senior PTI leader and former Minister of Foreign Affairs, too, has received a 10-year sentence. PTI has claimed, quoting advocate Salman Safdar, that “the judge mocked the law and the constitution in the illegal cipher trial yesterday and today”.
Imran, who led Pakistan to World Cup glory in 1992, joined politics in the late 1990s and rose to become the country’s chief executive, always alleged that removing him from power was an American conspiracy. This case is related to an official document that went missing while in his possession. He has denied any wrongdoing, asserting that putting him behind bars was an effort to prevent him from contesting in next week’s elections. The trails were reportedly conducted behind closed doors and not in a public courtroom.