Islamabad: Imran Khan, the former Prime Minister of Pakistan, has been handed a 10-year jail term in Chiper Case on charges of leaking state secrets on Tuesday.
The former cricket captain assumed office as Pakistan’s prime minister in 2018. Khan was ousted from the prime ministerial post by political rivals in 2022, subsequently arrested in May 2023, and has been serving a three-year jail term for a corruption conviction.
The Cipher case, which resulted in the 10-year sentence for Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, revolves around the alleged leakage of secret diplomatic communications between Pakistan’s ambassador to the U.S. and Islamabad during Khan’s prime ministership.
In a rally in March 2022, Khan presented a document on stage, claiming it as evidence of a foreign conspiracy against him. He asserted that a specific country was adamant about removing him from power, although he did not explicitly name the United States. Subsequently, in April 2022, he faced a vote of no-confidence, leading to his removal from power, with allegations of corruption and unconstitutional actions. The charges were endorsed by the country’s Supreme Court.