ISLAMABAD: Imran Khan (pic), Pakistan's most popular politician, is facing a 14-year prison term this month in a case his party says is being used to pressure him into silence.
The former prime minister, long a source of frustration for the powerful military, has been in custody since August 2023 and faces a slew of legal cases he says are politically motivated.
A looming verdict for graft linked to a welfare foundation he set up with his wife, the Al-Qadir Trust, is the longest-running of those cases, with a verdict postponed on Monday for a third time.
"The Al-Qadir Trust case, like previous cases, is being dragged on only to pressure me," Khan said this month in one of his frequent statements railing against authorities and posted on social media by his team.
"But I demand its immediate resolution."
Analysts say the military establishment is using the sentence as a bargaining chip with Khan, whose popularity undermines a shaky coalition government that kept his party from power in elections last year.
"The establishment's deal is he comes out and stays quiet, stays decent, until the next election," said Ayesha Siddiqa, a London-based author and analyst on Pakistan's military.
Analysts say the military are Pakistan's kingmakers, although the generals deny interfering in politics.
Khan said he had once been offered a three-year exile abroad and was also "indirectly approached" recently about the possibility of house arrest at his sprawling home on the outskirts of the capital.
"We can assume from the delays that this is a politically motivated judgement. It is a Damocles sword over him," said Khan's legal adviser Faisal Fareed Chaudhry
"The case has lost its credibility," he said, adding that Khan will not accept any deal to stay silent.
Khan has been convicted and sentenced four times in other cases. Two cases have been overturned by the Supreme Court, while judges have suspended the sentences from the other two.
The specialist anti-graft "accountability court" is set to announce the verdict and sentence in the welfare foundation case on Friday, two days after government envoys are scheduled to meet leaders from Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party to ease tensions.
The PTI has previously sworn to refuse talks with a government its leaders claim is illegitimate, alleging the coalition seized power by rigging February 2024 polls.
They say they will only take part if political prisoners are released and an independent inquiry is launched into allegations of a heavy-handed response by authorities to PTI protests.
Otherwise, Khan has threatened to pull his party from the negotiations and continue with a campaign of civil disobedience that has frequently brought Islamabad to a standstill.
The most recent protests flared around Nov 26, when the PTI allege at least 10 of their activists were shot dead. The government says five security force members were killed in the chaos. - AFP
