State Secrets Case: Ex-Pak PM Imran Khan acquitted

A High Court in Pakistan yesterday acquitted jailed former prime minister Imran Khan from a conviction on charges of leaking state secrets, his lawyer and his party said, but Khan will remain in prison for now due to a conviction in another case.

Khan, 71, was 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.

Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was Khan's foreign minister during his tenure from 2018-2022, was also acquitted of the charges.

"Thank God, the sentence is overturned," a spokesman for legal affairs from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Naeem Panjutha, said in a post on the X social media platform.

Despite the acquittal, Khan will remain in prison, having also been convicted in another case relating to his marriage to his third wife, Bushra Khan, contravening Islamic traditions.

Khan said on May 30 that February's national election was stolen from his party, describing it as the "biggest robbery of a public mandate".

Khan, speaking in the Supreme Court via video link from Adyala jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, said he was being held in solitary confinement.

His remarks were the first to be heard in open court since he was jailed in August.

"My party is being victimised. There have been gross human rights violations," Khan said. "The February 8 election was the biggest robbery of a public mandate."

The Election Commission has denied the election was rigged.