A Pakistani court has sentenced the former prime minister Inrab Khan and one of his party deputies to 10 years in prison each after finding them guilty of revealing official secrets.
According to Zulfiqar Bukhari, a spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party, the court announced the verdict at a prison in the city of Rawalpindi.
Khan, who was ousted through no-confidence in the parliament in April 2022, is currently serving a three-year prison sentence in a graft case.
The special court set up in a prison in Rawalpindi on Tuesday announced the sentence in the so-called cypher case, which pertains to a diplomatic cable that Khan claims proves his allegation that his removal from power in 2022 was a conspiracy.
The court established under the Official Secrets Act found Khan guilty of misplacing the confidential cable sent by a former Pakistani ambassador to the United States.
Khan repeatedly denied the charge, saying the document contained evidence that his removal as prime minister was a plot hatched by the by his political opponents and the powerful military, with help from the US administration. Washington and Islamabad reject the accusation.
Khan was Pakistan’s premier from August 2018 to April 2022 when he lost a vote of confidence in the parliament. He has been in jail since August last year on multiple charges, including the cypher case.
The latest development comes in the run-up to the country’s parliamentary elections , about a week before the February 8 general elections.
Peoplesmind
