A Pakistan high court on Monday overturned a treason conviction against jailed former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, months after his party was sidelined in a general election.
The conviction was one of three slapped on Khan in the buildup to February polls — cases he claims were orchestrated to prevent his return to power.
The 71-year-old remains jailed on other charges that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party are challenging.
Photo: EPA-EFE
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 victimization against Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi which has been dashed to the ground,” said Salman Safdar, a lawyer for Khan’s party.
Khan was convicted along with Qureshi, his former foreign secretary, of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by the Pakistani ambassador in Washington in 2022.
He had touted the cypher as evidence that the US had conspired to force him from power in 2022, when a no-confidence vote saw him replaced by the opposition.
The US and Pakistani military have denied the accusation.
Khan remains jailed on a seven-year sentence for breaking Islamic law by marrying his wife Bushra Bibi too soon after her divorce. He has also been found guilty of graft over gifts he received in his time as prime minister between 2018 and 2022.
While his 14-year jail sentence was suspended in April, the conviction still stands.
His wife Bibi was convicted on the same charges and is serving her sentence in the same prison.
Analysts regard Pakistan as a “hybrid regime,” where the military establishment wields immense power to determine the course of ostensibly democratic politics.
Khan’s first arrest in May last year sparked nationwide protests by supporters who directed unprecedented anger at the military — which responded with a sweeping crackdown on the PTI and its supporters.
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