Imran Khan, Pakistan’s Most Popular Politician, Acquitted in State Secrets Trial but Still Jailed

The Islamabad High Court on Monday acquitted former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan of charges that he leaked state secrets.

This nullified one of the most serious of many charges leveled against Khan, but he will remain imprisoned due to another conviction — ironically, a judgment that held the stridently Islamist Khan guilty of violating Muslim laws.

Khan, who was forced out of office by a parliamentary vote of no confidence in April 2022, has been dogged by almost 200 investigations pertaining to his conduct as prime minister. Khan and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Party claim all of these charges were trumped up to derail his political comeback.

That comeback was indeed derailed, as Khan spent the last Pakistani election cycle in jail, convicted in four different cases. Two of the judgments against him — both pertaining to Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, allegedly illegally selling expensive gifts provided by foreign powers when he was prime minister — have been temporarily suspended pending his appeals.

The third conviction, which the Islamabad High Court overturned on Monday, was for Khan leaking a classified diplomatic cable from the Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs to its ambassador in Washington. Khan brandished a copy of this diplomatic cable at one of his political rallies, claiming that it vindicated his claim of a foreign conspiracy forcing him out of office. The foreign conspirator in question would be the Biden State Department, which allegedly told Ambassador Asad Majeed Khan that it wanted a different Pakistani prime minister because Imran Khan was too cozy with Russia. Khan was ejected from office a month after this conversation occurred.

Khan’s aide, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was sentenced alongside him, also saw his conviction overturned on Monday, but he also remains imprisoned on other charges.

Khan’s lawyers and some Pakistani political observers saw Monday’s ruling as a “huge political and legal victory” because it would add fuel to Khan’s claims he was ousted by a foreign conspiracy and because he had defeated the powerful Pakistani military and intelligence services. Khan’s lawyers confidently predicted the other charges against him would fall as well.

“This is the first big case which was part of the political victimization against Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi which has been dashed to the ground,” PTI lawyer Salman Safdar said on Monday.

“It is a fact that a national security document was used for political purposes,” a government spokesman said indignantly after the high court threw out the so-called “Cypher Case” conviction.

Khan was further acquitted on Tuesday of charges that he committed vandalism during March 2022 protest marches. That means there is only one conviction keeping him in prison: a sentence of seven years for improperly marrying Bushra Bibi, his third wife.

The Islamabad High Court said it would postpone ruling on Khan’s appeal of this conviction, which held that he violated Islamic law by not waiting long enough after Bibi was divorced from her previous husband, Khawar Maneka, to marry her.

Maneka testified that he divorced Bibi in November 2017. Khan announced he married Bibi in February 2018 — a little sooner than the mandatory three-month post-divorce interval stipulated under Islamic law for a woman to remarry. Actually, it is a three menstrual cycle interval, and much of the case depended upon exactly when Bibi had her last period. Bibi was jailed for seven years under this conviction, along with Khan.

Khan’s comeback could conceivably get back on the rails in time for Pakistan’s next election if his remaining convictions are overturned. PTI did extremely well in the last election, considering it had been effectively banned from appearing on ballots and its leader was in jail. The party in power, the Pakistan Muslim League (PML-N), was forced to cobble together a coalition government to keep Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif in power.

Khan, who claimed PML-N stole the election from PTI with underhanded maneuvers, is probably still the most popular politician in Pakistan.

“A big day for the leader and the party. A fake, frivolous and fraudulent case is sent packing by IHC (Islamabad High Court),” PTI spokesman Raoof Hasan proclaimed on Monday. “Other cases will also meet their Waterloo soon. Khan will step out of Adiala as the undisputed leader of a resurgent nation. Congratulations everyone.” Aidala is the name of the jail where both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi are currently incarcerated.