previous key Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan was sentenced to ten years in jail on Tuesday, the newest twist in precisely what is commonly viewed being a marketing campaign through the navy to sideline one among its major critics.

ISLAMABAD (AP) — A get more info Pakistani court docket convicted previous Prime Minister Imran Khan of revealing official tricks on Tuesday and handed him his harshest sentence nevertheless of a decade — the latest in the slew of lawful cases that supporters say are meant to sideline the imprisoned politician just days ahead of parliamentary elections.

With Khan in custody, Pakistani authorities on Thursday cracked down on his supporters, arresting hundreds in overnight raids and sending troops across the country to rein in the wave of violence that adopted his arrest previously this week. (AP Image/K.M. Chaudary)

Khan's help for Pakistan's blasphemy rules carried over into relations While using the West. In 2021, he identified as on "Muslim international locations to strain Western governments for making insulting" the Islamic Prophet Muhammad a crime, "likening this evaluate to guidelines in opposition to Holocaust denial".[one hundred seventy] He urged Muslims to launch a boycott on items of nations that don't punish "insult" to "the honour in the prophet".

In spite of that expanding frustration, the armed service’s hand in shaping politics has only grown stronger in the latest months, analysts say, because the country’s generals have sought to reassert Manage. The decision on Tuesday was widely seen as Element of that hard work.

Khan at a political rally in Peshawar in 1996 right after retiring, Khan admitted to ball tampering all through his early cricketing times when enjoying domestic cricket.

"It truly is good which the Intercontinental Neighborhood has ultimately spoken out about this situation. nations are unable to preach democracy and at the same time see it trampled on in these a large country," reported Bukhari.  

Khan claimed the doc was proof he was getting threatened Which his ouster was a U.S. conspiracy, allegedly executed by the military and the government in Pakistan. American and Pakistani officials have denied the assert.

the selections have appeared to pit the state’s judiciary versus the point out and armed service — tensions that final flared in 2007, if the nation’s chief at time, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, suspended the independent-minded Main justice who proved prepared to acquire up scenarios lawfully challenging the state’s use of electric power.

On twelve could, the Islamabad higher courtroom declared the arrest unlawful and mandated Khan's rapid launch.[285] Khan was granted protected bail and released on the identical day, indicating he could not be re-arrested on All those charges for 2 weeks.[285] Conviction and second arrest

Imran Khan played cricket in Pakistan and the United Kingdom in his teens and continued actively playing even though researching philosophy, politics, and economics within the University of Oxford. Khan performed his first match for Pakistan’s national staff in 1971, but he did not take a permanent location to the staff until after his graduation from Oxford in 1976.

Over the past calendar year, Mr. Khan has rallied his supporters all over accusations the military services orchestrated his ouster and, most lately, that a senior Pakistani army intelligence basic was driving a taking pictures that wounded him in November.

The PTI said in a statement that it stands with Khan and Qureshi, “who defended Pakistan and stood for real independence.” The bash described the proceedings as a “sham trial” and stated the decide did not even permit Khan’s and Qureshi’s lawyers to defend them.

"the one cause of Imran Khan getting in jail is his mind-boggling recognition. Imran Khan may very well be set beneath home arrest, but all of these bogus cases are only tries to curtail his substantial guidance and popularity. He desires his conditions to get heard on merit," Zulfikar Bukhari, Khan's media adviser, instructed DW.