Pakistan's former Prime Minister and cricket World Cup winner captain, Imran Khan has been sentenced to ten years in prison by a special court on Tuesday at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. He was accused of not returning an official document after he left the Prime Minister's office in 2022. (More Sports News)
Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is vice-president of his political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), were both sentenced under the Official Secrets Act by a special court convened for their case.
PTI has shown its dissent through a message on social media platform X and called out the sentence. It claimed the ruling to be "a sham trial and a complete mockery and disregard of law".
The 71-year-old Imran Khan has been in jail since August 2023 on a separate charge and even though that sentence was suspended, he was not released. He has consistently claimed that the no-confidence vote to remove him from power was orchestrated by the United States of America. He alleges that the document in question contained evidence of American diplomatic pressure aimed at ousting him from power.
This allegation gained further traction when the US news organization, The Intercept, published an article claiming to have accessed the classified document. According to the article, the US State Department threatened Pakistan with international isolation if Imran was not removed from power. Additionally, if he was indeed removed, it was implied that "all would be forgiven."
According to recent independent polls conducted in the country, Imran Khan is currently the most popular politician. His jail sentence comes just nine days before Pakistan's upcoming elections. In May 2023, when he was arrested by paramilitary security forces, the country witnessed major violent incidents that led to an internet blackout lasting several days. Many of his followers were also arrested during that time.
The lawyers of Imran and Qureshi have declared that they will file an appeal in the High Court against the given sentence
In 1992, he led Pakistan to their maiden cricket World Cup title. An all-rounder, Imran Khan took 534 wickets and scored 7516 runs in 263 international matches.
