Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan Jailed

Imran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan, was sentenced to three years in prison in a corruption case, and as a result, he was taken into custody from his Lahore home. Following Khan's conviction, the Islamabad court issued an arrest order, stating that he must spend his term in the Punjab region of Pakistan's Rawalpindi Central Jail. Lahore police moved swiftly to remove Khan from his residence.

A special court established within Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi has sentenced Shah Mahmood Qureshi, the former foreign minister and vice-chairman of Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, to ten years in prison. Both men are now being incarcerated there. The alleged leak of classified diplomatic information transmitted by Pakistan's ambassador in Washington to Islamabad during Khan's prime ministership is at the center of the so-called cipher case.

It has to do with his March 2022 appearance at a rally, one month before the former cricket player was removed from office by a vote of no confidence in parliament. Upon taking the podium, Imran Khan waved a piece of paper that he said revealed a foreign plot against him.

What is cipher case?

The case concerns diplomatic correspondence between Islamabad and Washington. It concerns the alleged leak of private diplomatic correspondence between Islamabad and Pakistan's envoy in Washington at the time of Khan's prime ministership. In 2022, Khan claimed that it was a part of a US plot to topple his administration. Washington, though, has continuously denied being a part of this kind of plot.
The basis for the cipher case is his March 2022 rally involvement, which occurred one month prior to his ouster due to a vote of no confidence. According to the BBC, Imran Khan displayed a document at the gathering and said it contained information about a foreign plot against him. "Everything will be forgiven if Imran Khan is removed from power," according to Khan's account of the letter.