#Former Foreign Minister Qureshi

[thelocalreport8]

Pakistan: Former Foreign Minister Qureshi, close to Imran Khan, in custody for 15 days

Islamabad. Before the general elections in Pakistan, Imran Khan’s close aide and former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was sent to Adiala jail for 15 days custody on Tuesday. Went. A day before this, the Supreme Court had granted him bail in another case. According to a report, Rawalpindi Deputy Commissioner issued the directive saying that the release of Qureshi, vice president of Imran…

[xtruss]

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan With His Wife Bushra Bibi Signs Bail Documents at Court in Lahore, Pakistan, on July 17, 2023. Photo: Arif Ali/AFP Via Getty Images

Imran Khan Remains Imprisoned Over His Wife’s Menstrual Cycles. State Department Says That’s “Something For The Pakistani Courts To Decide.”

The Charge of An Illegitimate Marriage Is All That’s Left After A Court Acquitted Khan Over His Handling of A Classified Cypher.

— Ryan Grim & Murtaza Hussain | June 4 2024

After An Arduous Legal Fight, a Pakistani Court on Monday Acquitted Former Prime Minister Imran Khan on Charges Related to his Handling of a Confidential Intelligence Cable, Known within the Pakistani Government as a Cypher.

Khan’s acquittal by the Islamabad High Court is a major victory for the former prime minister and his supporters, coming on the heels of a suspended sentence in a separate corruption case.

The ruling leaves Khan behind bars on precisely one charge: namely, that he and his third wife Bushra Bibi entered into an “un-Islamic marriage,” a crime for which Khan and Bibi are serving seven-year sentences.

The court, both during the hearing and in its ruling, dove into the details of Bibi’s menstrual cycle, ultimately rejecting her claim that three cycles had passed between her divorce and her marriage to Khan. Instead, the court relied on the word of her ex-husband.

Asked by The Intercept at a briefing, State Department spokesperson Matt Miller said the case and its merits were none of the United States’ business.

“We’ve addressed the question of Imran Khan many times,” Miller said. “The legal proceedings against him are something for the Pakistani courts to decide.”

Pressed on whether it was truly the case that Bibi’s menstrual cycles were a matter for the courts, Miller said that perhaps a Pakistani court will toss out this conviction just as they did the cypher case.

The Overturning Of The So-Called Cypher Case Was A Blow To The “Pakistani Corrupt Army General’s Selected and Election Losers’ Government’s Contention” That Khan Was a Traitor to His Country, and bolsters his supporters’ position that the charges against the imprisoned former prime minister are politically motivated.

Khan and his Ex-Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had previously been sentenced to 10 years in prison for allegedly mishandling the secret document, including Khan’s alleged brandishing a paper copy of it at a political rally.

The cypher has long since been a central piece of drama in Pakistan’s political wrangling. Khan had claimed in several instances, even when still prime minister, that the cypher revealed U.S. involvement in his removal from power in a no-confidence vote in 2022.

Secret Pakistan Cable Documents U.S. Pressure To Remove Imran Khan! “All Will Be Forgiven,” said a U.S. Diplomat, If the No-Confidence Vote Against Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan Succeeds

In 2023, the cypher was provided to The Intercept by a source in the Pakistani military. The document showed that during Khan’s time in office, U.S. State Department officials had threatened the then-Pakistani ambassador to the U.S. about damaged ties between the two countries if Khan remained in power. Shortly after the meeting, a vote of no-confidence in Parliament advanced, a move orchestrated by the powerful Pakistani military that succeeded in removing Khan from office.

Since then, Khan and his supporters have been in an escalating conflict with the military, which has led to widespread crackdowns, killings, and torture, as well as a ban on Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI. Khan himself was imprisoned on an array of charges.

The State Department has remained muted on the crackdown on democracy in Pakistan, including after February elections marred by extensive and brazen fraud.

Despite Khan’s imprisonment and a general ban on his party, candidates associated with PTI did resoundingly well in the vote. Following exit polls that seemed to show PTI-affiliated politicians sailing to victory, official announcements began to pour in that the candidates were losing. Amid allegations of election rigging by the military at the regional level, a coalition of opposition parties took power and was quickly recognized by the U.S.

The charges against Khan have now almost all fallen apart, save for an allegation of legal impropriety in Khan’s marriage to Bibi.

U.S. Endorses Pakistan’s Sham Election! Allegations of widespread electoral fraud, rigging, and violence mar Pakistan’s election.

The court, in its ruling, writes that her ex-husband tried to prevent his then-wife from visiting Khan, saying he “tried to stop her by force and during which hard words and even abuses were also exchanged but of no avail.”

The court, in its ruling, also approvingly reproduced her ex-husband’s antisemitic conspiracy theories, noting that “complainant believes that sister of respondent No.02” — Khan’s wife — “who resides in UAE has strong connection with Jewish Lobby.”

Bibi’s ex-husband, according to the ruling, also complained he was denied his right of “rujuh” — which refers to a husband getting their wife back in the initial period after a divorce. “He pointed out that under the law and ‘Shariah,’ the complainant has a right to have ‘Rujuh’ to his wife,” the ruling says, “but he was deprived of such right by the respondents.”

[stele3]

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/world-court-rule-whether-russia-violated-international-treaties-ukraine-2024-01-31/

[cricketfun]

Pakistan's 1992 World Cup winning captain Imran Khan to spend 10 years in jail In a significant developm... #usa #uk

[viralworldtv]

Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi re-arrest from Adi...

[localreport]

Pakistan: Former Foreign Minister Qureshi, close to Imran Khan, in custody for 15 days

[head-post]

Pakistan’s former PM released on bail over state secrets case

Pakistani former Prime Minister Imran Khan was granted bail on Friday over a high-profile state secrets case as the court declared him “innocent.”

The Supreme Court also granted bail to his party colleague and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi over the case, also known as “the cipher case.”

The case was heard by a three-member bench headed by Sardar Tariq Masood, acting chief justice. Justices Mansoor Ali Shah and Athar Minallah raised questions about the cipher and the inclusion of sections relating to the death sentence in the first information report against the former prime minister and foreign minister.

The former prime minister has not been found guilty; he is innocent. [There was] no proof that his statement benefited any other country.

Khan was accused of divulging state secrets when he waved a confidential diplomatic letter at a rally last year. He and Qureshi, members of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party, have twice been charged in the case.

Read more HERE

[thebusinesspress]

Imran Khan Faces Charges over Secret Cable Revelation

In a recent development, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his then Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have been indicted for allegedly leaking a classified diplomatic cable, thereby violating the official Secrets Act. The charges claim that Khan revealed the cable, which purportedly exposed a conspiracy by the U.S. and Pakistan’s military to remove him from power. While both Khan…

[blogynews]

Unveiling the Mystery: Imran's Indictment in Cipher Case Set for October 17

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will face indictment on October 17 in the cipher case, according to an announcement from a special court. Imran, who is currently in jail, is accused of leaking state secrets while leading the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, along with Qureshi. The charges stem from diplomatic correspondence between…

[blogynewz]

Unveiling the Mystery: Imran's Indictment in Cipher Case Set for October 17

Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi will face indictment on October 17 in the cipher case, according to an announcement from a special court. Imran, who is currently in jail, is accused of leaking state secrets while leading the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government, along with Qureshi. The charges stem from diplomatic correspondence between…

[blogynewsz]

"The Astonishing Twist: Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi Indicted in the Mysterious Cipher Case - What Astonishing Secrets Lie Within?"

Rawalpindi: In a significant development, it has been decided that both Imran Khan, Chairman of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, former Foreign Minister, will be indicted in the cipher case. According to media reports, they will face charges under the Official Secrets Act on October 17. Copies of the challan, which serves as a formal accusation in Pakistan’s legal…

[xtruss]

Imran Khan Warns That Pakistan’s Election Could Be A Farce

His Party is Being Unfairly Muzzled, the Former Prime Minister Writes From Prison

— January 4th, 2024 | The Economist

Imran Khan, Former Prime Minister of Pakistan. Image: Dan Williams

Today pakistan is being ruled by caretaker governments at both the federal level and provincial level. These administrations are constitutionally illegal because elections were not held within 90 days of parliamentary assemblies being dissolved.

The public is hearing that elections will supposedly be held on February 8th. But having been denied the same in two provinces, Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, over the past year—despite a Supreme Court order last March that those votes should be held within three months—they are right to be sceptical about whether the national vote will take place.

The country’s election commission has been tainted by its bizarre actions. Not only has it defied the top court but it has also rejected my Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (pti) party’s nominations for first-choice candidates, hindered the party’s internal elections and launched contempt cases against me and other pti leaders for simply criticising the commission.

Whether elections happen or not, the manner in which I and my party have been targeted since a farcical vote of no confidence in April 2022 has made one thing clear: the establishment—the army, security agencies and the civil bureaucracy—is not prepared to provide any playing field at all, let alone a level one, for pti.

It was, after all, the establishment that engineered our removal from government under pressure from America, which was becoming agitated with my push for an independent foreign policy and my refusal to provide bases for its armed forces. I was categorical that we would be a friend to all but would not be anyone’s proxy for wars. I did not come to this view lightly. It was shaped by the huge losses Pakistan had incurred collaborating with America’s “war on terror”, not least the 80,000 Pakistani lives lost.

In March 2022 an official from America’s State Department met Pakistan’s then ambassador in Washington, dc. After that meeting the ambassador sent a cipher message to my government. I later saw the message, via the then foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, and it was subsequently read out in cabinet.

In view of what the cipher message said, I believe that the American official’s message was to the effect of: pull the plug on Imran Khan’s prime ministership through a vote of no confidence, or else. Within weeks our government was toppled and I discovered that Pakistan’s Chief of Army Staff, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, had, through the security agencies, been working on our allies and parliamentary backbenchers for several months to move against us.

People flocked onto the streets to protest against this regime change, and in the next few months pti won 28 out of 37 by-elections and held massive rallies across the country, sending a clear message as to where the public stood. These rallies attracted a level of female participation that we believe was unprecedented in Pakistan’s history. This unnerved the powers that had engineered our government’s removal.

To add to their panic, the administration that replaced us destroyed the economy, bringing about unprecedented inflation and a currency devaluation within 18 months. The contrast was clear for everyone to see: the pti government had not only saved Pakistan from bankruptcy but also won international praise for its handling of the covid-19 pandemic. In addition, despite a spike in commodity prices, we steered the economy to real gdp growth of 5.8% in 2021 and 6.1% in 2022.

Unfortunately, the establishment had decided I could not be allowed to return to power, so all means of removing me from the political landscape were used. There were two assassination attempts on my life. My party’s leaders, workers and social-media activists, along with supportive journalists, were abducted, incarcerated, tortured and pressured to leave pti. Many of them remain locked up, with new charges being thrown at them every time the courts give them bail or set them free. Worse, the current government has gone out of its way to terrorise and intimidate pti’s female leaders and workers in an effort to discourage women from participating in politics.

I face almost 200 legal cases and have been denied a normal trial in an open court. A false-flag operation on May 9th 2023—involving, among other things, arson at military installations falsely blamed on pti—led to several thousand arrests, abductions and criminal charges within 48 hours. The speed showed it was pre-planned.

This was followed by many of our leaders being tortured or their families threatened into giving press conferences and engineered television interviews to state that they were leaving the party. Some were compelled to join other, newly created political parties. Others were made to give false testimony against me under duress.

Despite all this, pti remains popular, with 66% support in a Pattan-Coalition 38 poll held in December; my personal approval rating is even higher. Now the election commission, desperate to deny the party the right to contest elections, is indulging in all manner of unlawful tricks. The courts seem to be losing credibility daily.

Meanwhile, a former prime minister with a conviction for corruption, Nawaz Sharif, has returned from Britain, where he was living as an absconder from Pakistani justice. In November a Pakistani court overturned the conviction (Under United States’ Scrotums Licker Corrupt Army Generals’ Directions).

It is my belief that Corrupt to his Core Mr Sharif has struck a deal with the establishment whereby it will support his acquittal and throw its weight behind him in the upcoming elections. But so far the public has been unrelenting in its support for pti and its rejection of the “selected”.

It is under these circumstances that elections may be held on February 8th. All parties are being allowed to campaign freely except for pti. I remain incarcerated, in solitary confinement, on absurd charges that include treason. Those few of our party’s leaders who remain free and not underground are not allowed to hold even local worker conventions. Where pti workers manage to gather together they face brutal police action.

In this scenario, even if elections were held they would be a disaster and a farce, since pti is being denied its basic right to campaign. Such a joke of an election would only lead to further political instability. This, in turn, would further aggravate an already volatile economy.

The only viable way forward for Pakistan is fair and free elections, which would bring back political stability and rule of law, as well as ushering in desperately needed reforms by a democratic government with a popular mandate. There is no other way for Pakistan to disentangle itself from the crises confronting it. Unfortunately, with democracy under siege, we are heading in the opposite direction on all these fronts. ■

— Imran Khan is the Founder and Former Chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf and was Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2018 to 2022.

— Editor’s Note: Pakistan’s government and America’s State Department deny Mr Khan’s allegations of American interference in Pakistani politics (Bullshit! Hegemonic War Criminal Conspirator United States and Corrupt Army Generals and Politicians of Pakistan Were Clearly Involved. It’s Social Media’s Modern Era, Not 1970). The government is prosecuting him under the Official Secrets Act.

[shahananasrin-blog]

[ad_1] ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's top investigation agency on Saturday declared former prime minister Imran Khan and ex-foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi guilty in a case related to the alleged disclosure of state secrets, popularly known as the cipher case. The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) submitted the chargesheet against Khan, the chairman of the Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and his deputy Qureshi, both currently detained in jail on judicial remand, to a special court established under the Official Secrets Act, the Pakistan Observer website reported.Khan, 70, was arrested last month after a case was filed against him for allegedly violating the Official Secrets Act by disclosing a secret diplomatic cable (cipher) sent by the country's embassy in Washington last year in March. !(function(f, b, e, v, n, t, s) ; var TimesApps = window.TimesApps; TimesApps.toiPlusEvents = function(config) var isConfigAvailable = "toiplus_site_settings" in f && "isFBCampaignActive" in f.toiplus_site_settings && "isGoogleCampaignActive" in f.toiplus_site_settings; var isPrimeUser = window.isPrime; if (isConfigAvailable && !isPrimeUser) loadGtagEvents(f.toiplus_site_settings.isGoogleCampaignActive); loadFBEvents(f.toiplus_site_settings.isFBCampaignActive); else var JarvisUrl=" window.getFromClient(JarvisUrl, function(config) if (config) loadGtagEvents(config?.isGoogleCampaignActive); loadFBEvents(config?.isFBCampaignActive); ) ; )( window, document, 'script', ); [ad_2]

[warningsine]

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistan high court on Tuesday (Aug 29) suspended former prime minister Imran Khan's prison sentence for a graft conviction, his lawyer said, but it was unclear if he would be immediately released.

A spokesman for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said that the Islamabad High Court had overturned a lower court's decision this month to imprison him for three years, a judgement which has barred him from contesting upcoming elections.

His party and lawyers said he was granted bail, but they feared that the 70-year-old would be rearrested over one of the more than 200 cases levelled against him since he was ousted by parliamentary vote in April 2022.

"We have filed a separate application requesting the court pass an order barring the authorities from arresting him in any other case," Gohar Khan, one of the lawyers, told AFP.

"If authorities arrest him in any other case, it will be against his legal rights."

Khan has been in prison for three weeks since a judge found him guilty of failing to properly declare gifts he received while in office.

A special court in Islamabad has ordered prison authorities to keep Khan in judicial custody and present him before the court on Wednesday, according to an undated order seen by Reuters.

A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official, who requested anonymity, said Khan was charged with making public the contents of a confidential cable sent by Pakistan's ambassador to the United States and using it for political gain.

Khan's top aide, former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has already been arrested in the same case.

Khan alleges that the cable proves that his removal was at the behest of the United States, which he said pressed Pakistan's military to topple his government because he had visited Russia shortly before its attack on Ukraine.

Both the United States and the Pakistani military have denied that.

Anticipating his release, Khan's legal team said they would head for the Attock jail, a century-old prison around 60km west of the capital, Islamabad.

But political commentator Omar Quraishi told AFP "it remains to be seen if the former prime minister will be released and if so, when", because of the volume of other cases involving Khan.

KHAN BEHIND BARS

The charismatic 70-year-old is Pakistan's most popular politician and claims his ousting and subsequent legal cases have been orchestrated by the powerful military establishment to deny him a second term.

Khan was also briefly jailed on graft charges in May, sparking days of civil unrest, but since then, his PTI party has been targeted by a major crackdown which has vastly diminished his street power and seen most of his senior leadership jump ship or be locked away.

Islamabad said that it was targeted by "anti-state" violence during backlash over that arrest.

But rights groups say authorities used overly broad anti-terror laws to suppress PTI, and the domestic press reported pressure to censor or smear Khan on the airwaves.

While Khan was imprisoned this month, Pakistan's parliament was dissolved at the request of his successor Shehbaz Sharif to pave the way for a caretaker government which will usher in elections in the coming months.

No date for the polls has yet been announced.

Khan, a former cricket star, surged to power in 2018 on a wave of popular support, an anti-corruption manifesto and the backing of the powerful military establishment.

When he was ousted in April last year, analysts said it was because he had lost the support of those same generals who handed him the keys to office.

He was replaced by a shaky coalition of the dynastic parties which have historically ruled Pakistan.

But as an opposition politician, he waged an unprecedented campaign against the influential generals, who have staged at least three successful coups leading to decades of martial law.

Khan's political opponents say that the former prime minister will remain in custody.

"He has been on judicial remand for 15 days, which is expiring tomorrow, and he will be produced for extension of the remand tomorrow in a special court," said Ataullah Tarar, a key aide to former Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Khan's camp called for him to be released following Tuesday's suspension of his graft conviction.

"Arresting him in any other case will cause further damage to our national integrity and repute of judicial system," Khan's aide Zulfikar Bukhari posted on messaging platform X.

"Let the innocent be free!" he added.

[newblogs-world]

There is a strong perception of the interim administration being just an extension of the security establishment.

CURIOUSLY, it was through X (formerly Twitter) that President Arif Alvi chose to deny that he had assented to the bills amending the Official Secrets Act and the Army Act, plunging the country into yet another constitutional crisis. The two disputed bills passed by parliament earlier this month were enacted after the president was deemed to have given his consent. But his tweet two days after the notification has opened a new Pandora’s box.

 

While the president’s delayed denial, and that too through social media, is inexplicable, it has nevertheless rendered the validity of these Acts controversial. The entire episode has further widened the cracks within the country’s power structure, amplifying the existing chaos. The president’s statement blaming bureaucratic foul play has made the matter more complex.

It has also exposed the president’s own predicament as he desperately tries to defend his position under fire. The demand for his resignation has certainly put pressure on him, with just a few weeks left for the end of his term in the top office. Meanwhile, the debate over the validity of the enacted laws has given a new twist to the ongoing political battle. The matter is now likely to go to the Supreme Court.

But the controversy surrounding the disputed Acts that provide sweeping powers to the security agencies is certainly not going to go away whatever the outcome of the legal battle. The way the two bills were pushed through parliament, just days before the dissolution of the National Assembly ignoring the voices of dissent, has raised questions about the intention behind the move.

Many see the interim administration as just an extension of the security establishment.

It is apparent that the former ruling coalition deliberately passed the bills that provide sweeping powers to the security agencies, undermining civil rights. The latest controversy over the legal status of the enacted laws has also brought into the question the political cost of strengthening the powers of the security apparatus. The PDM coalition’s shameful capitulation will have long-term consequences for the democratic process. The draconian laws that are currently being used against its political opponent could come back to haunt it. It is a lesson of history that our political leaders conveniently ignore for short-term political gains.

While demanding the president’s resignation over the assent controversy, the PDM parties have come together to defend the black laws. Interestingly, it’s the PML-N whose leaders now — as opposed to when they were in the opposition where they were never tired of talking about civilian supremacy — are the biggest exponents of the laws strengthening the establishment’s stranglehold.

While the debate over the legality of the two Acts rages on, the authorities have set up a special court under the amended Official Secrets Act to try PTI leaders in the cipher case. Among the accused are former prime minister Imran Khan and former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. There are also several other PTI leaders and supporters who are likely to face trial under the Army Act.

What we are witnessing is arguably the most ruthless crackdown against a political party in recent times. Hundreds of PTI supporters are languishing in jail without trial; many of them are believed to have been held on trumped-up charges. Some PTI women supporters have been detained for over three months without being produced before a trial court and having been denied bail. All that has made a mockery of justice and the rule of law. The newly enacted amended laws enhancing the powers of the security agencies will make things worse.

All this is happening as the country prepares for elections, raising doubts about prospects of a democratic transition. What is most alarming is the intensification in crackdown on the political opposition under the military-backed interim government whose impartiality is questionable. There is a strong perception of the interim administration being just an extension of the security establishment.

Moreover, the prevailing uncertainty over the election schedule has reinforced suspicions about the country moving towards a prolonged period of interim rule with all the powers to take policy decisions. The PML-N and most other PDM parties now favour delaying elections beyond the constitutional limit of 90 days. The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) has already announced that delimitation of the constituencies as required under the new census will take at least four months to complete before poll arrangements, requiring another three months, can begin.

It may be a valid point, yet there is no clear time frame given by the ECP for the polls. There is also a strong view that there is no need for fresh delimitation of constituencies. There appears a clear division within the former ruling coalition over the matter.

What is most intriguing is the ambiguous position taken by the PML-N leadership on the poll delay. The confusion also reflects the power tussle within the Sharif family and the party’s diminishing electoral prospects in the face of PTI’s strong challenge, despite the crackdown against it and efforts to dismantle the party. In its 16 months of rule, the PML-N-led coalition has little to show by way of performance, especially on the economic front; this has further eroded its support base.