New sentence of 14 years jail and disqualification a week before elections in Pakistan

A new sentence has been issued against Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan, who was sentenced this Wednesday to 14 years in prison for selling state goods. This is the third verdict against the former Prime Minister in less than a year. And this comes just a week before the general election, in which the election authority has not allowed the leader to offer himself as a candidate again. The court has also disqualified Khan from politics for a decade, so he will not be able to contest elections again until he turns 81. The trial took place in Rawalpindi jail, south of Islamabad, where Khan has been held since May last year. The same judge yesterday imposed another ten-year sentence against the former prime minister for revealing state secrets.

“We are facing another sad day in the history of our judicial system, which is being dismantled.”, Khan’s media team said in a statement, after reiterating that the former cricket star did not commit these crimes. “This ridiculous decision will be challenged,” he said, after denouncing that the defense was not allowed to question testimony during the trial.

The court on Wednesday also sentenced Khan’s wife Bushra Khan to 14 years in jail on the same charge. The former Prime Minister’s wife entered jail today soon after the sentencing. Each of them has been fined 757 million rupees, about 2.5 million euros. According to the allegations, Khan and his wife grabbed and sold jewelery and watches given by Saudi authorities.

Khan’s Pakistan Justice Movement (PTI) party described the sentence as “ridiculous” and said the prosecution witnesses were part of a “game”.

Since his dismissal through a vote of confidence in Parliament in 2022, Khan has accumulated 170 court cases against him, the majority of which are corruption. The former Prime Minister assured that both his removal from power and the complaints are a conspiracy by Pakistani and United States authorities to remove him from the political front.

Despite convictions, Khan remains Pakistan’s most popular politicianAccording to a recent opinion poll by the Gallup company, with an approval rating of 60%. The cricket star’s imprisonment led to large-scale riots in several cities across the country, whose police repression resulted in ten deaths and over 2,000 arrests.

Protestors also entered the army headquarters to condemn the arrest of the former prime minister. Now his party has assured that the authorities have blocked the candidature of its members for the general elections to be held next Thursday, so high-ranking people of PTI have presented their proposal in person, outside the formation.

PTI also claims that the party has been prevented from campaigning in the media and that banners bearing Khan’s face have been removed from the streets. Security forces today stopped PTI from holding an election preparation meeting, “PTI is prevented from meeting even in its own offices. Is this perhaps a level playing field?” the party said in a publication on its social networks. In an investigation published two weeks ago, Human Rights Watch condemned the increase in harassment of dissident media, opposition parties, and NGOs over the past year.