ISLAMABAD: A court in Pakistan on Tuesday suspended former PM Imran Khan’s recent conviction on corruption charges, his lawyer Naeem Panjutha said, but it would not lead to his release as a judge has ordered his detention in another case.
Imran has been at the centre of political turmoil in the crisis-ridden nuclear-armed state since his ouster in a parliamentary vote of confidence in April 2022, and his relations with Pakistan’s powerful generals have deteriorated badly over the past year.
He was imprisoned on August 5 after being sentenced to three years in jail for unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as PM from 2018 to 2022. As a result of the conviction, and with a national election expected in the coming months, Pakistan’s Election Commission also barred him from contesting elections for five years.
The court also ordered Imran’s release on bail, another one of his lawyers, Shoaib Shaheen, told reporters outside the court. But he will not be freed as he has been detained in at least another separate case on charges of leaking state secrets. A special court in Islamabad has ordered prison authorities to keep him in judicial custody and present him before the court on Wednesday, according to an order.
A Federal Investigation Agency official, who requested anonymity, said Imran was charged with making public the contents of a confidential cable sent by Pakistan’s ambassador to the US and using it for political gain. Khan’s top aide Shah Mahmood Qureshi has already been arrested.
Imran alleges that the cable proves that his removal was at the behest of the US, which he said pressed Pakistan’s military to topple his government because he had visited Russia shortly before its attack on Ukraine.