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Pakistani Interior Minister Rana Sanaa said on Wednesday that Pakistan will open criminal proceedings against former Prime Minister Imran Khan on charges of disclosing official secrets, in the latest in a series of cases facing the former prime minister.
The case relates to diplomatic correspondence between Washington and Islamabad, which Khan said early last year was part of a US plot to overthrow his government. Washington denied involvement in any such plot.
Sanaullah said the decision was made after Khan’s former principal secretary Azam Khan recorded a statement to the court on Wednesday that Khan manipulated an encrypted US diplomatic message in March 2022 to serve his own political ends.
The 70-year-old former cricket champion lost power in an April 2022 no-confidence vote that he said Washington took part in after his visit to Moscow.
Khan waved a piece of paper at a public gathering shortly after his dismissal, saying he was carrying a copy of a secret diplomatic message, which spoke of dire consequences if he continued to draw closer to Russia.
Khan traveled to Moscow on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sanaullah said the principal secretary also testified that Khan told him he had lost a copy of the letter when he was asked to return it.
“It is a crime to reveal an official secret,” the home minister said, adding that the state would file charges in court against Khan.
“I don’t think he lost the copy. He still has it. It should be recovered from him,” he said.
Khan said he did not believe his former secretary could testify against him. “I wouldn’t accept it unless I heard it directly from him,” he told reporters after a hearing in another case.
In a tweet on Wednesday night, Khan said, “In their frantic attempts to implicate me in any event merely to demobilize and imprison me, this current group of incompetent con artists have shot themselves in the foot again. They have afforded me an opportunity to properly present this whole drama of Cypher.”
“Tomorrow I will be sharing the uncensored details of how this plot came about to overthrow a government that had the best economic performance of the last 17 years and bring to power those whitewashers and crooks who have run the country to the ground,” Khan added.
The secrecy charge is the latest of several charges Khan has faced since his ouster, including graft, murder and sedition.
The case relates to diplomatic correspondence between Washington and Islamabad, which Khan said early last year was part of a US plot to overthrow his government. Washington denied involvement in any such plot.
Sanaullah said the decision was made after Khan’s former principal secretary Azam Khan recorded a statement to the court on Wednesday that Khan manipulated an encrypted US diplomatic message in March 2022 to serve his own political ends.
The 70-year-old former cricket champion lost power in an April 2022 no-confidence vote that he said Washington took part in after his visit to Moscow.
Khan waved a piece of paper at a public gathering shortly after his dismissal, saying he was carrying a copy of a secret diplomatic message, which spoke of dire consequences if he continued to draw closer to Russia.
Khan traveled to Moscow on the eve of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Sanaullah said the principal secretary also testified that Khan told him he had lost a copy of the letter when he was asked to return it.
“It is a crime to reveal an official secret,” the home minister said, adding that the state would file charges in court against Khan.
“I don’t think he lost the copy. He still has it. It should be recovered from him,” he said.
Khan said he did not believe his former secretary could testify against him. “I wouldn’t accept it unless I heard it directly from him,” he told reporters after a hearing in another case.
In a tweet on Wednesday night, Khan said, “In their frantic attempts to implicate me in any event merely to demobilize and imprison me, this current group of incompetent con artists have shot themselves in the foot again. They have afforded me an opportunity to properly present this whole drama of Cypher.”
“Tomorrow I will be sharing the uncensored details of how this plot came about to overthrow a government that had the best economic performance of the last 17 years and bring to power those whitewashers and crooks who have run the country to the ground,” Khan added.
The secrecy charge is the latest of several charges Khan has faced since his ouster, including graft, murder and sedition.
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