Imran Khan barred from public office after back-to-back convictions

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According to Wednesday’s verdict, Khan and his wife are barred from holding any public post for 10 years and must pay a fine of 757 million rupees ($2.7m) each.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party blasted the court’s decision, calling it a “kangaroo trial” and that the conviction represented the “complete destruction of every existing law in Pakistan.”

The hearing, held at Adiala Jail where the former premier is incarcerated, was reportedly rife with inconsistencies as Khan’s legal team was not informed he was about to be sentenced and judges did not allow for the cross-examination of witnesses.

“Why are you in a hurry? Even yesterday, the conviction was announced in haste,” Khan told judges during the hearing. When asked to provide his closing statement, Khan told judges: “My statement is in the [prison] room. I was only called for marking attendance.”

“My lawyers are not here yet. I will submit the statement after showing it to them when they come,” he added before exiting the courtroom, after which the court sentenced the ex-premier and his wife in absentia.

PTI official Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari spoke with Al Jazeera after the sentencing, calling it “yet another sad day in Pakistan’s judicial history” that showed the “judiciary is being dismantled.”

“Star witnesses were changed … with no cross-questioning allowed, no final argument concluded, and the decision pops up like a predetermined process in play,” Bukhari said.

Hamid Khan, a senior lawyer and PTI leader, told Geo News that the two convictions in two days showed “how all the laws and procedures of a fair trial were exploited.”

“No legal requirements were fulfilled, […] the permission to present witnesses was not provided. The statements under Section 342 were not even recorded properly,” he said.

Following the verdict, the PTI denounced that its central offices in Islamabad have been cordoned off and sealed by police. “[The PTI] is being prevented from meeting even inside its office. Is it a level playing field?” the party said in a post on social media.

On Tuesday, another special court set up in Adiala Jail sentenced Khan to 10 years in jail for “leaking official secrets” in proceedings that were conducted behind closed doors.

The sentence was issued as part of the so-called cypher case, which pertains to a diplomatic cable that shows the US State Department encouraged Pakistani officials to oust Khan from office over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Khan revealed the existence of this cable in early 2022. Since then, he has been faced with over 150 legal cases.

The back-to-back convictions against Pakistan’s most popular political figure comes just days before crucial elections that have seen the PTI banned from using its signature symbol. Authorities have also ordered journalists and television news channels not to mention Khan’s party as part of their election coverage.

Pakistani media was already barred from reporting Khan’s speeches or rallies on TV.

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