Jailed Pakistan former PM Imran acquitted of leaking state secrets

Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday overturned a treason conviction against Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan, who remains in jail on other charges.

The conviction was one of three slapped on Imran Khan in the runup to February elections, which he claims were orchestrated to prevent his return to power.

The decision by a two-member bench at the IHC was announced by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, an AFP court reporter witnessed.

"This is the first big case which was part of the political victimisation against Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi which has been dashed to the ground," Salman Safdar, a lawyer for Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf party, told AFP outside of court.

Imran was convicted along with Qureshi, his former foreign secretary, of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan's ambassador in Washington in 2022.

He had touted the cypher as evidence that the United States had conspired to force him from power in 2022, when a no-confidence vote saw him replaced by the opposition.

The United States and Pakistan's military have denied the accusation.

Imran Khan remains jailed on a seven-year sentence for breaking Islamic law by marrying his wife Bushra Bibi too soon after her divorce.

He has also been found guilty of graft over gifts he received in his time as premier between 2018 and 2022.

While his 14-year sentence was suspended in April, the conviction still stands.

Imran was ousted by a parliamentary no-confidence vote after falling out with the top generals, and in opposition he waged an unprecedented campaign of defiance against them.

Agence France-Presse