Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan was sentenced to a 10-year jail term on Tuesday, just days before the upcoming election in which his party is unable to participate.
Khan's sentence was handed down inside Adiala jail, where he has been confined for much of the time since his August arrest and buried under an avalanche of court cases he says have been orchestrated to prevent his return to office.
Reportedly, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, the vice president of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and former foreign minister under Khan, received the same sentence.
Imran Khan served as the prime minister from 2018 to 2022 until he was removed through a no-confidence vote due to losing support from the country's influential military leaders.
As the leader of the opposing party, he conducted an extraordinary defiance campaign against the senior officials. He accused them of removing him in a conspiracy supported by the US and of planning an assassination that resulted in his injury.
Khan was briefly arrested last May, and Islamabad used the resulting unrest to justify a sweeping crackdown on PTI which has seen many senior leaders defect or go underground.
Nawaz Sharif, the leader of a long-standing political dynasty in Pakistan, has recently returned from self-imposed exile. Upon his return, his numerous convictions have been overturned by the courts.
As per the constitution of Pakistan, elections must take place within 90 days of the dissolution of parliament, which occurred in August, five months ago.
