Pakistan’s Imran Khan remains jailed despite bail order
Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, currently in jail for corruption, has been granted bail, but still remains in custody ahead of a general election in February.
Khan was granted bail on the case by the Supreme Court on Friday, but he remained jailed on other charges.
He has been in jail since August for allegedly leaking state secrets.
Khan says the country’s powerful military is colluding with dynastic parties to suppress his political party and prevent him from taking office.
The 71-year-old has faced various legal cases since being removed from office on April 22.
He has twice been jailed.
“The case has completely collapsed, and Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi have finally been granted bail,” lawyer Salman Safdar told reporters outside court, referring to Khan’s former foreign minister who is being held in the same case.
Prosecutors believe that the two former leaders misused a diplomatic cable two leaders mishandled a diplomatic cable, known as “cypher”, sent by Pakistan’s ambassador to the United States.
Meanwhile, both have repeatedly denied the accusation, saying the cable proved that the Pakistani military and the US wanted to topple Khan’s government in 2022 after he visited Moscow just before the Ukraine war.
The top court said “there are not reasonable grounds for believing” an offense under the colonial-era Official Secrets Act, which carries a possible 14-year prison term or death sentence, was committed by Khan.
“There are sufficient grounds for further inquiry into their guilt of said offense, which is to be finally decided by the learned trial court,” the judgment said.
“The prospect of him obtaining relief in the near future appears to be very slim,” party lawyer Khalid Yousaf Chaudry told AFP.
The US-based news outlet The Intercept earlier in August published what it claims to be the details of a diplomatic “cypher” – or a secret cable – that suggests the US administration wanted to remove Khan from power last year.
Khan alleged he knew of the “cypher” while he was in office which, according to him, proved the US hatched a conspiracy with the help of his political opponents and the Pakistani military to remove him.
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