A Pakistani court suspended former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s corruption conviction and three-year jail sentence Tuesday, but it was not immediately clear whether he will be released from prison.
The ruling by the high court in Islamabad came in response to Khan’s appeal against his conviction, arguing that it was unlawful and breached his “fundamental right to due process and fair trial.”
The embattled 70-year-old politician was arrested and jailed earlier this month after being found guilty of selling state gifts in office and allegedly concealing their proceeds. Khan has denied any wrongdoing.
The conviction prompted the Pakistan Election Commission to immediately ban Khan from running for office for five years under relevant laws.
Tuesday’s ruling also granted bail for Khan, but the former prime minister faces scores of other allegations, ranging from terrorism and sedition to corruption and murder.
Khan alleges that the country’s powerful military is behind all the legal challenges, to prevent him and his political party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), from participating in the next general elections.
The military denies the charges.
The cricket star-turned-popular politician has been in a political showdown with the military since a parliamentary vote of no-confidence toppled him and his coalition government last year.
Khan accuses the then-military leadership of plotting the vote in collusion with his political opponents and the United States, charges Washington and Islamabad denied.
In another case, the former prime minister is under investigation about an official diplomatic cable, known as a cipher, that prosecutors allege went missing from his possession while in office.
Khan has rejected the charges as baseless and “ridiculous.” The judge hearing the case has ordered authorities to bring the ousted leader before him on Wednesday.
“After suspension of @ImranKhanPTI sentence in the Toshakhana case, his arrest in any other fake & fraudulent case will be ill-intentioned & mala fide. Justice must prevail – and justice shall prevail,” Raoof Hasan, a central PTI spokesman, wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
Toshakhana is a repository where foreign dignitaries’ gifts to government officials are stored, but officials are legally allowed to retain gifts after paying a certain percentage of the price.
In recent months, a military-led crackdown has arrested thousands of PTI workers and leaders. Supporters carrying PTI flags or staging street protests against the crackdown are immediately apprehended by police, effectively making it a crime to show loyalty to Khan publicly, PTI leaders and commentators say.
The alleged missing cipher purportedly contained a threat from the United States to oust Khan from power over his neutrality in the Ukraine war. It documented an alleged conversation between U.S. State Department officials and Islamabad’s then-ambassador to the U.S., Asad Majeed Khan.
Earlier this month, an American news outlet, The Intercept, published what it said was the cipher text for the first time, which Khan has long held up as evidence of his claim that Washington engineered his ouster in April last year.
According to the purported cipher, State Department officials encouraged the Pakistani ambassador to tell Pakistan’s powerful military that if Khan were removed from office over his neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Islamabad could expect warmer relations with Washington.
Khan remains the most popular politician in Pakistan, according to opinion surveys.
The military has directly ruled Pakistan for nearly half its history by staging coups against elected governments.
Politicians and independent critics say the army leadership continues to influence political happenings in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation even when they are not in power and orchestrate the toppling of prime ministers or imprison them on controversial charges for falling out with the military.
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