RAWALPINDI: A Pakistan court has sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and former Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi to jail for 10 years each in a case involving leaking of state secrets, local media reported on Tuesday.

A special court established under the Official Secrets Act sentenced Pakistan Tehreeke-e-Insaf (PTI) leader Khan and former Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi handed out the 10-year jail sentence in the cypher case, Dawn reported.

The verdict was announced by special court Judge Abul Hasnat Zulqarnain during the hearing held at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi.

The special court had begun the cipher trial afresh last month at the Adiala district jail after Imran and Qureshi were indicted for a second time in the case on December 13, Dawn News reported.

The former premier and Qureshi, who is also behind bars, were first indicted in the case in October. Both had pleaded not guilty.

The IHC had termed the government’s notification for a jail trial “erroneous” and scrapped the entire proceedings.

Taking to social media platform X, Khan said, “This is not a trial but a fixed match whose outcome was predetermined by the characters and planners of the London Plan and their seals. That is why I already know the decision of this case.”

He added, “Remember that Cipher is a case which has been declared null and void twice by the Islamabad High Court and ordered to be re-tried because both times the case was tried to be run in violation of the constitution and the law. Then the Supreme Court has also given me bail in this case because the whole building of this case has been built on lies, bullying, conspiracy and deceit.”

The former Pakistan PM also alleged that “these people want to provoke you by giving me a harsh sentence in this case so that you go out on the streets and protest, then add your unknowns to it and do another false flag operation in the style of May 9 to get those results.

Attempts should be made which could not be achieved by the earlier false flag operation.

Second, they want you people to stay at home on February 8, disappointed and angry.”

The cypher case involves a diplomatic document that the Federal Investigation Agency alleges was never returned by Imran Khan, with the PTI asserting the document contained a threat from the United States to remove Imran as prime minister.

(ANI)