A court in Islamabad on Tuesday suspended the three-year prison sentence for former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, according to his lawyers, but he will not be immediately released because he was imprisoned in another case.
Imran Khan, ousted from power by a motion of no confidence in April 2022, was sentenced on August 5 to three years in prison for corruption, and immediately imprisoned in Attock, about 60 kilometers from the capital.
The Electoral Commission had excluded him a few days later for this reason from any participation in electoral polls for five years.
“The court accepted our request, which amounts to suspending” the conviction and ordered the release of the former prime minister, one of his lawyers, Gohar Khan, told AFP.
But Imran Khan, who is being prosecuted in more than 200 cases, will not be released immediately, as he was jailed by another court for leaking state secrets, which his legal advice had not been. informed before Tuesday’s hearing.
“This constitutes a manipulation of justice,” another of his lawyers, Muhammad Shoaib Shaheen, told AFP.
“He was arrested before today’s court decision. The exact date of his arrest remains unclear”, explained Gohar Khan, deploring that his lawyers “did not receive the information of his arrest, which deprived of proper access to the justice system.”
Imran Khan, 70, is accused of leaking the content of a diplomatic cable from the Pakistani ambassador to the United States and exploiting it politically.
He claimed that the message proved that the United States had hatched a conspiracy to oust him from power. The charge was deemed fanciful by Washington.
He is due to appear on Wednesday before the special court which imprisoned him in this case, which also earned the vice-president of his party, former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, to be placed in detention.
Mr Khan, a former cricketer-turned-politician, is being prosecuted in more than 200 cases, which he says are politically motivated to prevent him from running again.
Mr Khan, 70, is Pakistan’s most popular politician and accuses the army of trying to prevent him from taking part in the upcoming elections.
He had already been arrested for corruption in May, and held for three days before being released.
His arrest sparked violent clashes between law enforcement and his supporters, which left at least nine people dead.
Following his release, his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), was the target of a campaign of repression with thousands of arrests, acts of intimidation and the muzzling of the press.
Mr Khan had risen to power in 2018 thanks to a wave of popular support, an anti-corruption manifesto and the support of the powerful Pakistani army.
When he was ousted, analysts said it was because he lost the support of top generals.
After his ousting, Mr. Khan had also issued unprecedented criticism of the army.
He has repeatedly accused a senior officer of plotting to assassinate him in November at an election rally, where he was shot in the leg.
Direct criticism of the army is rare in Pakistan, because it is considered a red line not to be crossed, at the risk of finding itself in the sights of the security apparatus.
Parliament was dissolved on August 9 and an interim government, led by technocrats, was put in charge of supervising the next elections.
This vote must take place within 90 days after the dissolution, according to the Constitution. But the government has hinted it could be pushed back as the electoral commission needs time to redraw electoral constituency boundaries after the release of data from the last census taken in May.
29/08/2023 14:19:07 – Islamabad (AFP) – © 2023 AFP