Islamabad Court Overturns Imran Khan's Conviction in State Secrets Case

However, the former PM remains imprisoned due to another conviction.

Photo : Bilawal Arbab/EPA

Islamabad, Pakistan — An Islamabad court has overturned the conviction of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his close associate, former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in a case involving the leak of state secrets.

Khan and Qureshi had been sentenced to 10 years in prison on January 30 by a special court in Rawalpindi, shortly before Pakistan's general elections.

Khan, a former cricket star who served as Prime Minister from August 2018 until April 2022, has been imprisoned since August last year, facing multiple legal charges.

Despite the Islamabad High Court's decision to annul this conviction, Khan remains behind bars due to a separate case. On February 3, Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to seven years in prison by a Rawalpindi court, which ruled that their 2018 marriage violated Islamic law.

The status of Qureshi’s release remains uncertain.

Sayed Zulfiqar Bukhari, a senior leader of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, claimed the court's decision proves that the charges against Khan were unfounded. “The court has shown that this was just another baseless charge against former PM Khan. We believe all such charges will soon be dismissed,” he told Al Jazeera.

Khan has recently received several favorable judicial rulings. On the same day as the Islamabad High Court's decision, both Khan and Qureshi, along with other PTI leaders, were acquitted in two cases related to vandalism during a PTI protest rally in May 2022.

Last month, Khan was granted bail by the Islamabad High Court in a high-profile land-deal case. He was accused of collaborating with Malik Riaz, a prominent property tycoon, in a deal that allegedly cost the national exchequer over $239 million.

Khan was removed from office through a no-confidence vote in April 2022. Tensions between him and Pakistan's political and military establishment escalated after his arrest in May last year, which led to widespread protests and attacks on military installations by his supporters. This resulted in a severe crackdown by security forces, leading to numerous PTI supporters and leaders being arrested or going into hiding.

Although Khan was released shortly after his initial arrest, he was subsequently arrested and convicted in multiple other cases. He has been declared ineligible to contest in the upcoming February elections due to these convictions. Additionally, election authorities have denied PTI the use of its electoral symbol, the cricket bat.

Despite these challenges, PTI-backed candidates won 93 seats in the recent elections, making them the largest political bloc in parliament and leading the opposition.