ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has challenged in the Supreme Court a decision by a high court to overturn jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s conviction on charges of leaking state secrets, the ex-premier’s party said on Thursday.
Khan, 71, had been sentenced to 10 years in prison by a lower court on charges of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022. He has been in jail since August last year.
On June 3, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) overturned the state secrets case conviction, saying an “instant appeal is allowed” and Khan was acquitted of the charges. Shah Mahmood Qureshi, Khan’s foreign minister during his tenure from 2018-2022, was also acquitted of the charges. Both however remain in jail due to other legal cases against them.
“FIA has challenged IHC decision, acquitting former Prime Minister Imran Khan & Former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in the Supreme Court of Pakistan,” Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said in a text message sent to journalists.
“Interestingly appeal filed by FIA is based on short order of IHC whereas detailed verdict is yet to be announced.”
Khan has said the classified cable was proof of a conspiracy by the Pakistan military and the US government to topple his government in 2022 after he visited Moscow just before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington and Pakistan’s military deny that accusation.
The state secrets case was one of four in which Khan was convicted just ahead of Pakistan’s national election in February. In two other cases the sentences have since been suspended.
But despite the June 3 acquittal, Khan, a former cricket star, will remain in prison serving a seven-year sentence over another case relating to his marriage to his third wife, Bushra Khan, also known as Bushra Bibi, which a court said contravened Islamic law.
A ruling on the couple’s appeal against the sentence was postponed last month and the proceedings transferred to another court after a judge recused himself following an accusation of bias made by Bibi’s former husband, according to Khan’s lawyers.
Khan and his party were banned from contesting the February election, but candidates backed by the jailed leader still won the most seats. They did not have the numbers to form a government, which was instead led by an alliance of his rivals led by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
With inputs from Reuters