Pakistan: Court Orders Jailed Imran Khan to Appear in Public Trial

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Image copyright: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images News via Getty Images (July 23, 2019)

The Facts

  • Pakistan's former Prime Minister Imran Khan is slated to make his first public appearance since his imprisonment in August after a special court on Thursday ordered authorities to produce him and jailed former Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi for trial on Nov. 28.

  • Khan and Qureshi were indicted on Oct. 23 in the cipher case, which concerns a diplomatic document that reportedly contained state secrets and allegedly went missing from Khan's possession.

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The Spin

Narrative A

The prolonged incarceration of Imran Khan illustrates so well the contempt for human rights in Pakistan since his ousting that even some politicians in America — the very nation that sought to overthrow him — have expressed their concern over his case, urging US Pres. Joe Biden to halt military aid to Islamabad. The latest court orders indicate that this outrage may be about to finally come to an end.

The Friday Times

Narrative B

Though Khan's jail trial has been declared illegal and void, it's crucial to assert that the problem was a mere technicality related to the procedure adopted for the cipher case trial to be held in prison. Pakistani laws allow the trial court to decide where to conduct the proceedings, including jail premises, especially if security concerns are similar to Khan's trial.

GEO

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