Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan, former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi sentenced to 10 years in prison in cipher case

Former prime minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were on Tuesday sentenced to 10 years each in prison in the cipher case. The decision was announced by special court Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain during the hearing of the case held at the Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

Khan's party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) confirmed the development by saying that it was a “sham case with no access to media or public.” “Legal team will challenge the decision in a higher court and hopefully will get this sentence suspended, given the poor proceedings of a case when Islamabad High Court had clearly annulled proceedings twice, ordered access to media and public but on the contrary, access of legal team was denied, and decision reached in a haste,” the party said in WhatsApp message.

The cipher case pertains to a piece of paper, purported to be a diplomatic cable -- the cipher -- that Khan had waved at a public rally on March 27, 2022, and naming the US, had claimed that it was ‘evidence' of an “international conspiracy” to topple his government.