Impran Khan, the former prime minister of Pakistan and arguably its most popular leader, should count himself lucky that, after three and a half years of “misrule” and political witch-hunting, he was ousted in a no-confidence motion in April 2022, when his popularity graph was at an all-time low.
However, from March 8 to March 28, 2022, he was sure that his administration would stop the initiative, so in a desperate attempt, he played the “anti-American card.” During a public rally, he pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket, purportedly a copy of a diplomatic cipher, and held it out to the enraged audience, declaring that it was irrefutable evidence of an “international conspiracy” to topple his government.Soon after, he was charged with violating an “official secret,” and a trial court found him guilty just before the February 8, 2024, elections, effectively excluding him from the race. But last week, awaiting a thorough ruling, a judge of the Islamabad High Court cleared him of the previously listed accusations. In contrast to the ruling Pakistan Muslim League (PML) (N), which questioned the conduct of some “judges” and accused them of having a bias towards Imran Khan, he and his party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), applauded the verdict.
