ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani anti-terrorism court (ATC) on Tuesday sentenced top aides of former prime minister Imran Khan to 10 years in prison, but acquitted Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a former foreign minister, in a case related to 2023 riots, Khan’s party and local media said.
The riots erupted after Khan was briefly arrested in Islamabad on corruption charges on May 9, 2023, with his supporters attacking government buildings and military installations.
Thousands of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party members and supporters were later detained and hundreds were charged under anti-terrorism laws in a sweeping crackdown, with some cases referred to military courts.
While a written order of Tuesday’s judgment by Lahore ATC judge Manzar Ali Gul was not available at the time of filing, the verdict was widely reported by Pakistani print and electronic media outlets and confirmed by the PTI.
“An anti-terrorism court in Lahore sentenced Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Ejaz Chaudhry and others to 10 years in prison over a May 9 riots case,” PTI spokesman Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari said in a text message to reporters.
The court also sentenced PTI’s Mian Mehmood-ur-Rasheed and former Punjab governor Umar Sarfraz Cheema to 10 years in prison, while Khadija Shah was handed down a five-year sentence.
The PTI denies inciting supporters to violence in May 2023 and says the government is using the protests as a pretext to victimize the party. The government denies political persecution.
This is the second such verdict against PTI members in less than a month.
On Aug. 25, an ATC in Faisalabad convicted 75 out of 109 accused persons for an attack on the residence of then-Minister for Provincial Coordination Rana Sanaullah during the May 2023 riots.
Among those sentenced to 10 years were senior Khan aides, Omar Ayub Khan, Shibli Faraz and Zartaj Gul Wazir as well as Sheikh Rashid Shafiq, Rai Murtaza Iqbal, Kanwal Shauzab, Rai Hassan Nawaz, Ahmad Chattha, Ansar Iqbal, Bilal Ijaz, Ashraf Sohna, Mehr Javed and Shakeel Niazi.
Prior to the Aug. 25 verdict, courts in Lahore and Sargodha also handed down similar sentences of up to 10 years to other PTI leaders and workers linked to the May 2023 riots.
Khan has himself been jailed since August 2023, when he was convicted of illegally selling state gifts, a ruling that also barred him from contesting the 2024 general elections. He is currently serving a 14-year jail sentence in a land graft case he says is politically motivated to keep him away from public office.
Khan, ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022, has dismissed all cases against him and other party leaders and members as politically motivated. The government denies this and says PTI uses violent protests to derail economic progress and destabilize the country.
Pakistan’s top court last week granted bail to Khan in eight May riot cases.
