In a major development, the Islamabad High Court (IHC) on Monday acquitted former Prime Minister and PTI founder Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the cipher case, Dawn reported. According to media reports, both leaders are not expected to be released from jail due to Imran’s sentence in the Iddat case while Qureshi was arrested in recent May 9 cases.
IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb announced the short verdict after accepting the appeals of the former premier and diplomat against their convictions in the case.
Khan, 71, was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a lower court on charges of making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022. Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who was Khan’s foreign minister during his tenure from 2018-2022, was also acquitted of the charges.
“Thank God, the sentence is overturned,” a spokesman for legal affairs fromKhan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, Naeem Panjutha, said in a post on the X social media platform.
