10 years imprisonment for the former Pakistani Prime Minister

Khan and his supporters denounced these accusations and described them as politically motivated.

“There cannot be a more ridiculous case than the Cypher case. What could be more ridiculous than Pakistan imprisoning its Prime Minister and Foreign Minister for exposing a foreign conspiracy!!,” PTI, Pakistan’s largest political party, wrote on X.

“Cypher” refers to the name of the case in which Khan and former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi were sentenced to ten years in prison, and centered on secret diplomatic communications between Pakistan's ambassador to the United States and Islamabad that were allegedly leaked while Khan was the country's president. minister.

During a rally in March 2022, Khan brandished a document on stage that he said was evidence of a foreign conspiracy against him, and claimed that a certain country was determined to remove him from power. Although he did not explicitly mention the United States, he later openly criticized Washington.

One month later, he was removed from power in a vote of no confidence by opposition lawmakers, citing corruption and unconstitutional procedures. The country's Supreme Court upheld these charges.

Khan's opponents said at the time that the document was meaningless, but Khan was charged by prosecutors on Tuesday with leaking classified materials and damaging diplomatic relations over that incident.

The former prime minister and his supporters said in 2022 that his ouster was a conspiracy planned by current Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the United States, the latter of which has a long and complicated relationship with the Pakistani government. Khan's supporters say tensions began when the former leader began publicly criticizing Pakistan's powerful military, and that Washington also wanted to sack Khan, who has long criticized the United States.

Sharif and the Biden administration deny these accusations.

Khan later took what appeared to be a retraction of his accusations against the United States, saying he wanted to repair his country's relationship with the world's top superpower if re-elected, although he is now barred from running in the country's general election on February 8. Many political analysts viewed him as the most likely candidate in the elections.

He said in his speech, “For me, the matter is over. It is behind me. The Pakistan that I want to lead must have good relations with everyone, especially the United States.” Interview November 2022.

But he still criticized Islamabad's relationship with Washington, saying: “Our relationship with the United States was like a master-servant relationship… But I blame my governments more than the United States.”

Khan remains hugely popular across the country of 230 million people. After his arrest in 2023, PTI and Khan's supporters called for a lockdown of Pakistan, blocking roads and organizing mass protests to demand his release.

But since then, many protesters and politicians have been arrested, hampering the public's desire to demonstrate.

“The message is clear,” one freelance writer in Islamabad, who requested anonymity due to fear of retaliation, told CNBC. “Back off or go to jail.”