Pakistan Court Acquits Former PM Imran Khan In State Secrets Leak Case

The decision was announced by a two-member bench at Islamabad High Court led by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, the report said.

File photo of former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan.

Source : PTI

Islamabad High Court on Monday overturned a treason case against former prime minister Imran Khan, who is currently in jail in several charges, AFP said in a report.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party founder was sentenced to 10 years in jail for making public a secret diplomatic communication.

The decision to quash the previous judgement was announced by a two-member bench at Islamabad High Court led by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, the report said. The acquittal was confirmed by Salman Safdar, a lawyer for Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party.

The former cricketer-turned-politician has been in jail since August 2024 after being convicted in around 200 cases slapped on him since his ouster in April 2022.

However, Khan is not expected to be released from prison due to his sentence in the Iddat case (illegal marriage). 

Former Pakistan foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, who was co-accused, was also acquitted in the cipher case along with Imran Khan.

All About Cipher Case

The case pertains to the incident in which Khan showed a piece of paper - allegedly a copy of a diplomatic communication - at a public rally in Islamabad, claiming it as proof of a conspiracy against his government by a foreign power, referring to US diplomat Donald Lu, who has been at the centre of the cipher controversy. Khan had brandished the cipher paper just two weeks before the ouster of the PTI government in April 2022 through a vote of no-confidence in Parliament.

The Cipher case was filed on August 15 last year by the Federal Investigation Agency which accused Khan and Qureshi of violating the secret laws while handling a cable sent by the Pakistan embassy in Washington in March 2022.

Khan and Qureshi were sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment in the cipher case in January by a special court, established under the Official Secrets Act. Both of them had challenged the verdict in the Islamabad High Court.