Former Pakistan PM Imran Khan's detention extended for two weeks

A Pakistani court has extended the judicial remand of the country's former Prime Minister Imran Khan for another 14 days in a case that accused him of exposing state secrets.

The court also extended the judicial remand of the vice chairman of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, and former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in the same case.

The hearing of the case, commonly known as the "cipher case," was held on Wednesday at a prison due to "security reasons" in the northeastern Attock district, where Khan is currently incarcerated.

Khan's lawyer, Naeem Haider Panjotha, in a post on X, confirmed that the ex-premier's judicial remand has been extended till September 26.

A string of cases

The case is related to diplomatic communications between Washington and Islamabad, which Khan says was part of a US conspiracy to topple his government.

The ex-prime minister was first remanded in the cipher case last month days before the suspens ion of his three-year sentence in a graft case by the Islamabad High Court.

Khan, 70, was sentenced by a trial court in Islamabad on Aug. 6 for concealing details and unlawfully selling state gifts he received during his nearly four-year stint as the prime minister from 2018-2022. Consequently, he was barred from holding public office for five years by the country’s election commission.

The cricketer-turned-politician, who is facing a string of cases, was ousted through a no-trust vote in April 2022.