Imran Khan: Pakistan's former PM jailed in state secrets case as election looms
The former Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan was sentenced to 10 years in jail on Tuesday which has been seen a as way of sidelining him from Pakistan politics by the military.
The sentence, which was delivered in a case in which Mr Khan is accused of leaking state secrets, came about a week before Pakistan is set to head to the polls for the first national election since he was ousted in a vote of no confidence in April 2022.
Analysts have called the election among the least credible in Pakistan’s 76-year history because of the military’s widespread crackdown on Mr Khan and his supporters.
His ouster set off a political showdown between Mr Khan and the country’s powerful military, which has long been the invisible hand guiding the country’s politics. Mr. Khan and his supporters have accused military leaders of orchestrating his removal — an accusation they deny.
The country has been embroiled in the political crisis spawned by Mr Khan’s ouster for a year and a half. As Mr. Khan and his supporters have railed against the country’s generals, public anger at the military has swelled. In May, hundreds of protesters attacked military installations in scenes that were once unimaginable in Pakistan.
In response, the military launched a widespread intimidation campaign aimed at weakening Mr Khan’s political party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or P.T.I., and curbing the remarkable political comeback he has made even as he has been jailed and barred from contesting the national election next week.
The verdict on Tuesday was handed down by a special court that was established earlier this year and that analysts say is more deferential to the military’s wishes. Mr Khan has called the trial a “fixed match,” suggesting its outcome was predetermined, and his party said it would appeal the verdict.
“This 10-year sentence won’t stand for 10 days before the appellate courts. Such brazen disregard of law and constitution has never been witnessed before,” Taimur Malik, one of the lawyers for Mr Khan, said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi, a former foreign minister and close aide to Mr. Khan, was also handed a 10-year sentence on Tuesday in the same case.
巴基斯坦前總理伊姆蘭汗被判處10年監禁
巴基斯坦前總理伊姆蘭汗週二被判處 10 年監禁，這被視為軍方將他排除在巴基斯坦政治之外的一種方式。
這項判決是在汗先生被指控洩露國家機密的案件中作出的，大約在巴基斯坦準備參加自他在四月份的不信任投票中被趕下台以來的首次全國選舉的一周前。2022 年。
分析人士稱，由於軍方對汗先生及其支持者進行廣泛鎮壓，這次選舉是巴基斯坦 76 年歷史上最不可信的選舉之一。
他的下台引發了汗先生與該國強大的軍隊之間的政治攤牌，而軍隊長期以來一直是指導該國政治的看不見的手。 汗先生和他的支持者指責軍事領導人策劃了他的免職，但他們否認了這項指控。
一年半以來，該國陷入了汗先生下台引發的政治危機。 隨著汗先生和他的支持者對該國將軍的不滿，民眾對軍隊的憤怒日益高漲。 五月份，數百名抗議者襲擊了軍事設施，其場面在巴基斯坦曾經是難以想像的。
作為回應，軍方發起了廣泛的恐嚇活動，旨在削弱汗先生的政黨巴基斯坦正義運動黨（P.T.I.），並遏制他在入獄並被禁止參加全國選舉之際取得的令人矚目的政治復出。下週。
週二的判決是由今年稍早成立的特別法庭做出的，分析人士表示，該法庭更尊重軍方的意願。 汗先生稱這次審判是一場“固定比賽”，暗示其結果是預先確定的，他的政黨表示將對判決提出上訴。
「上訴法院的 10 年刑期不會維持 10 天。 汗先生的律師之一泰穆爾·馬利克(Taimur Malik)在X（前身為Twitter）上發文稱，這種對法律和憲法的公然無視是前所未有的。
前外交部長、汗先生的親密助手沙阿·馬哈茂德·庫雷希 (Shah Mahmood Qureshi) 也在同一案件中於週二被判處 10 年徒刑。
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