Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan has been sentenced to 14 years in jail in a corruption case — just 24 hours after being given a 10-year sentence for leaking state secrets.
Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, was also handed a 14-year sentence in the case, known as Toshakhana. This accused them both of illegally selling state gifts.
The Guardian reported that the judge also banned them both from holding political office for 10 years.
The sentence was given at a hearing held in the Rawalpindi prison where Khan is being held. A judge denied Khan’s lawyers' request to cross-examine witnesses in the trial. Khan’s lawyers were also not present at the newest hearing on Wednesday (January 31).
"We don't accept this illegal decision," Mr Khan's lawyer Naeem Panjutha said on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.
Khan's party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), said both he and former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi were sentenced to 10 years each by a special court on Tuesday. It called it a "sham case" and said the party would challenge the decision.
Khan is alleged to have waved a confidential document — a classified cable — at a rally in March 2022 after he was ousted as PM. Khan claimed that the document was proof of a conspiracy by the Pakistani military and US government to topple his administration. He has maintained his innocence and says he did not disclose the exact contents of the cable.
The document — called Cipher — has not been made public by either the government or Khan’s lawyers, It was reportedly diplomatic correspondence between the Pakistani ambassador to Washington and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Islamabad.
Critics believe the timing of the rulings is significant given that Pakistan goes to the polls on February 8 in its long-delayed general election. Though Khan is already banned from running, he remains hugely popular among voters.
The former cricket star turned politician, who was ousted as PM by his opponents in 2022, is already serving a three-year jail term after being convicted of corruption. He was sentenced alongside one of his party deputies.
Dozens of cases have been brought against Khan since he was ousted from power. He says these are a government plot to discredit him.
Who is Imran Khan?
Imran Ahmed Khan Niazi, 71, is a Pakistani former cricketer and politician. He served as the 22nd prime minister of Pakistan from August 2018 to April 2022, before being ousted after a no-confidence motion.
Born in Lahore in 1952, Khan’s paternal family is of Pashtun ethnicity and belongs to the Niazi tribe.
He grew up with four sisters in an upper-middle-class family and was educated in England at the Royal Grammar School Worcester. He then attended Keble College, Oxford, where he read philosophy, politics and economics, graduating in 1975.
Khan made his Test cricket debut against England in 1971 at Edgbaston and in 1976 he returned to Pakistan, where he secured a permanent position with the national team.
In 1982, he took over the captaincy of the team, until he retired after leading Pakistan to World Cup glory in 1992.
The all-rounder scored six centuries and took 362 wickets in 88 Tests.
On April 25, 1996, Khan founded the PTI. He ran for a seat on the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1997 as a candidate of PTI from two constituencies — Mianwali and Lahore — but was unsuccessful and lost both seats.
He also participated in the 2002 Pakistani general election, during which he was elected for Mianwali.
In 2018, Khan was elected prime minister of Pakistan. During his victory speech, he said he wanted to build the country as a humanitarian state based on the principles of the first Islamic state of Medina.
Khan has been married three times, firstly to British socialite Jemima Goldsmith. His second, short-lived marriage was to British-Pakistani journalist Reham Khan.
His current wife is Bushra Bibi Khan, whom he married six months before he assumed office as prime minister.
He has three children — two sons and a daughter.
In November 2022, a senior aide claimed there had been “an attempt to kill him”. At least four other people were injured in the shooting when an unidentified gunman opened fire on a vehicle carrying Khan as it travelled through Wazirabad. This is approximately 110 miles south-east of Islamabad, the Telegraph reported.
According to local news channels, shots were fired near the convoy carrying Khan as he led the protest march in the eastern Punjab province. He was on the march to call for a snap election, after being removed from office in April 2022. After the attack, he was taken to hospital and, according to his supporters, his injuries were only minor.
Khan’s PTI party called the attack an “assassination attempt”, and said its leader, Faisal Javed, had also been injured.
Imran Ismail, a member of the party, said Mr Khan was shot in the leg “three to four times” by an attacker, wielding an AK-47.
