Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been acquitted by a court in the case of leaking state secret documents. The double bench of Islamabad High Court Chief Justice Amer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hasan Aurangzeb gave this order on Monday.
“If they are not imprisoned in any other case, they should be released immediately,” the court order said. However, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder chief Imran Khan and party’s former vice-chairman Qureshi are not being released due to imprisonment in several other cases.
Imran Khan has been sentenced to prison on charges of marriage without complying with Sharia law. Meanwhile, Qureshi was arrested in a case of violence on May 9 last year. He is currently in remand.
A special court of the country sentenced Imran Khan and Qureshi to 10 years in prison in January last year in the case of leaking state secret documents. They appealed against that judgment in Islamabad High Court.
Earlier on August 5, a court of the country sentenced Imran Khan to three years in prison in the case of selling state gifts (Toshakhana). The Islamabad High Court also suspended that sentence. After that, Imran Khan appealed to cancel the sentence. But a double bench of the High Court rejected his plea.
Earlier in January, Imran Khan was sentenced to 14 years in prison in a separate case related to Toshakhana. Then last April the Islamabad High Court suspended that sentence. A court in the country sentenced Imran Khan to seven years in prison last February in a case of not marrying according to Sharia law.
In the state secret documents leak case, Imran Khan was accused of keeping a diplomatic cable to himself while he was the prime minister. Later the report about that cable message was published. A case was filed against Imran for leaking that document. Imran Khan alleged that the US threatened to oust his government from power in that cable.
Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly of Pakistan Omar Ayub has welcomed the acquittal of Imran Khan and Qureshi in the case of leaking state secret documents. At the same time, he demanded immediate release of Imran Khan and Qureshi. Reacting to the Islamabad High Court’s order, he told reporters, “The nation will soon see Imran Khan out of jail.”