Here are some details regarding the legal challenges faced by former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated. On Saturday, a Pakistani court cleared Khan, aged 71, and his third wife of charges related to an unlawful marriage. This development came just a day after his party secured more seats in parliament, intensifying pressure on the country's unstable government. Khan had previously been convicted in four cases leading up to the February national election and has been in jail since August of the previous year. However, all sentences against him have either been overturned or suspended.
Khan is still undergoing trial on charges of anti-terrorism, linked to incidents of violence against the military and other state institutions that occurred after his brief arrest in May 2023. Several of his supporters have already been sentenced by military courts in this matter. Last week, a court revoked Khan's bail in this case, which could be the sole reason for his continued detention following his acquittal on the unlawful marriage charges. His party announced on Saturday that new arrest warrants have been issued for Khan in three separate cases related to the May 9 violence.
In June, the Islamabad High Court nullified Khan's conviction on charges of leaking state secrets. He had received a 10-year prison sentence for disclosing a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan's ambassador in Washington in 2022, known as the cipher case. Khan claimed that the cable was proof of a conspiracy by the Pakistan military and the U.S. government to overthrow his government in 2022, following his visit to Moscow just before Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Both Washington and Pakistan's military have denied these allegations.
Khan was also sentenced to jail terms—one for 14 years and another for three years—in two cases involving the illegal acquisition and sale of state gifts. Both sentences have been suspended by high courts pending the outcome of his appeals. This case, also known as the Toshakhana or state treasury case, accuses Khan and his wife of selling state gifts worth over 140 million rupees ($501,000) that he received during his premiership from 2018 to 2022. The gifts included diamond jewelry and seven watches, six of which were Rolexes, with the most expensive valued at 85 million rupees ($305,000). They have denied any wrongdoing in this case.
Saturday's ruling by an Islamabad court reversed a February decision that found Khan and his wife, Bushra Khan, guilty of violating Islamic law by not observing the required interval between Bibi's divorce from a previous marriage and her 2018 marriage to Khan. The trial court had originally sentenced them to seven years in prison.
