Pakistan court acquits ex-PM Khan, aide in state secrets case

ISLAMABAD: The Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday acquitted former prime minister Imran Khan and his close aide, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in a case relating to the leaking of state secrets, Khan’s lawyer and his party said.
Khan and Qureshi were serving 10 years in prison on charges of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022, in what is commonly known as the cipher case.
Khan has said the cable was proof of a conspiracy by the Pakistan military and the US 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.
Khan and Qureshi, who were convicted in the case in January this year, had appealed the decision in the Islamabad High Court, which set aside their convictions on Monday.
“Thank God, the sentence is overturned,” Naeem Panjutha, a member of legal team of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, said on X.
Sayed Zulfikar Bukhari, a PTI member and a close Khan aide, also confirmed the development on X. “Conviction in Cypher Case set aside by IHC, appeals of IK [Imran Khan] and SMQ [Shah Mahmood Qureshi] allowed,” he said.
In response to Monday’s judgment, the Pakistani government, which says Khan violated clauses of the state secrets law by revealing contents of the secret diplomatic cable, said the prosecution was awaiting the detailed judgment to decide whether it would appeal the acquittal.
“If the prosecution felt like they should go into appeal then after reading the [detailed] judgment and analyzing all the details, it is the prosecution’s job and the prosecution is at liberty to decide,” Aqeel Malik, a government spokesman, told reporters at a press conference. 
The state secrets case was one of the four cases in which Khan was convicted weeks before Pakistan’s national election in February. His sentences in two other cases have been suspended.
But Khan will remain in prison to serve a seven-year sentence in another case relating to his marriage to his third wife, Bushra Bibi, which contravened Islamic traditions.
The ex-premier, who was ousted in a parliamentary no-trust vote in April, has been in jail since last August. Arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician, Khan says all cases against him are politically motivated to keep him out of politics.