Imran Khan felt great relief when a high-ranking Pakistani court cleared the troubled former prime minister and his foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, in the cipher case on June 3.
The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party's founder, Mr. Khan, and Mr. Qureshi were both given 10-year prison sentences in January by Islamabad's special court, which was established in accordance with the Official Secrets Act.
The cipher case concerns an incident at a public rally in Islamabad where the former prime minister displayed a piece of paper, apparently a copy of a diplomatic communication, and claimed it was evidence of a foreign power plot against his government. This incident involved U.S. diplomat Donald Lu, who has been at the center of the cipher controversy.
Only two weeks before the PTI administration was overthrown in April 2022 by a vote of no-confidence in Parliament, Mr. Khan had displayed the cipher paper.
In the Islamabad High Court, Mr. Khan and Mr. Qureshi had both contested the decision.
The Federal Investigation Agency opened the Cipher case on August 15, 2022, alleging that Mr. Khan and Mr. Qureshi had broken the law by handling a cable that was sent in March 2022 by the Pakistani embassy in Washington.
