A federal court in Pakistan ruled on Tuesday that the closed-door jail trial of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on charges of leaking state secrets was unlawful.
A single-judge special tribunal has been conducting the judicial proceedings inside a prison near the capital of Islamabad, where Khan was indicted on the charges last month.
But Khan challenged the indictment in a higher federal court, arguing that the entire trial breached his constitutionally guaranteed right to a fair and open trial.
"Consequently … the trial conducted … in jail premises in a manner that cannot be termed as an open trial stand vitiated," the court said in its Tuesday ruling.
Khan's lawyers said the trial was set up in a small room at the prison with only a couple of members of his legal team allowed. His family and the media were not given access.
Tuesday's ruling means the entire trial will start from scratch in an open court in the presence of the media, Khan's lawyer, Salman Akram Raja, said.
Charges stem from classified document
The charges against Khan, 71, stem from a March 2022 classified Pakistani diplomatic cable, known as a cipher, that Khan alleged documented the United States' role in toppling his government a month later with the help of his country's powerful military.
Islamabad's then-ambassador to Washington, Asad Majeed Khan, wrote the cable.
The classified document purportedly quoted Donald Lu, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs, as asking the ambassador to tell his military leadership it should remove Khan from office through a parliamentary vote of no-confidence because of his government's neutrality over the war in Ukraine.
The deposed cricket star-turned-prime minister was in Moscow for official talks with President Vladimir Putin on the day Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
An opposition alliance moved a no-confidence vote a day after the ambassador met with the U.S. officials, eventually bringing down the Khan government in April of that year because several of his party's lawmakers and coalition partners had also defected, allegedly under pressure from the military.
U.S. officials and the Pakistani military rejected charges they were behind Khan's removal. A U.S. news outlet, The Intercept, published the purported text of the cipher for the first time last August.
Popular leader faces lawsuits
Khan has been convicted in a graft case and sentenced to three years in jail. A higher court later suspended the sentence, but authorities quickly rearrested the former prime minister in the cipher case.
He faces multiple lawsuits filed by authorities, which he claims to be a ploy by the military to prevent his comeback to power because of his advocacy for an independent foreign policy for Pakistan, one free from the influence of the United States.
The deposed prime minister remains the most popular national political leader, and his opposition party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, is rated as the country's largest political party, according to recent public surveys
The military has staged repeated coups against elected prime ministers since Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947 and ruled the country for more than three decades. Pakistani politicians, including former prime ministers, say the army significantly influences policymaking even when it is not in power and orchestrates the removal of elected leaders who fall out with the institution.
The nuclear-armed South Asian nation of about 241 million people is scheduled to hold national elections on February 8, raising hopes the vote would help end the lingering political turmoil in Pakistan that erupted after Khan's ouster from office.
However, critics are skeptical about whether an election without Khan would deliver political stability, which they say is vital in helping Pakistan deal with its dire economic challenges.
