Pakistan: Court indicts ex-PM Imran Khan for making ‘secret cable’ public
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Two days after his predecessor Mian Mohammad Nawaz Sharif returned home from a four-year-long self-exile in the United Kingdom, a Pakistani court framed charges against former Prime Minister Imran Khan for making public the contents of a ‘secret diplomatic cable.’
The local media reported on Monday that Imran ‘leaked’ the contents of the cable to allegedly prove that his ouster from power in April 2022 was part of a conspiracy led by the US and the South Asian country’s powerful military.
A special court judge indicted Imran Khan and his then-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi for violating the Official Secrets Act by leaking a classified cable sent by Pakistan’s Ambassador in Washington to Islamabad early last year. Both men, however, denied the allegations, calling the charges politically motivated.
The next hearing in the sensitive case is scheduled for October 27 to examine witnesses presented for statements and cross-questioning.
The special court’s proceedings were held in a jail outside Islamabad.
This is the second indictment against Khan who, if found guilty, faces a maximum of 14 years in prison, complicating his attempts to contest the General Elections to the National Assembly scheduled for January 2023.
The former cricketer-turned-politician, 71, was disqualified in August from running for public office for five years after his conviction in a corruption case. Khan appealed to a higher court to suspend his three-year jail sentence, although he still faces more than 170 cases, ranging from murder to terrorism.
Pakistan’s investigators filed a case against Khan and Qureshi for revealing the cable’s contents as proof of an alleged conspiracy led by the US to unseat the former leader days before the no-confidence vote. However, the US, the Pakistani Army, and the nation’s Opposition denied Khan’s claims.
Despite losing power, Khan is seen as the most popular politician in Pakistan.
According to a Gallop Poll carried out in June and published in September, six out of ten Pakistanis approve of the firebrand politician, nearly double the ratings for Shehbaz Sharif who succeeded him as the PM, the media reported.
Sharif’s elder brother and three-time PM Nawaz Sharif returned to Pakistan on October 21 to galvanize his Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz).
The older Sharif has a 36 percent approval rating among the Pakistanis surveyed.
