With just a few days to go before the elections, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and Shah Mehmood Qureshi, former Foreign Minister and number two in the Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (Pakistan Movement for Justice, u PTI) party, have been sentenced to ten years in prison for leaking classified documents,his party and the public media announced on Tuesday 30 January. Ednews reports this news referring to LeMonde. 

The judgement was handed down in Adiala prison in Rawalpindi, where Imran Khan, who faces charges in dozens of cases and has been declared ineligible for five years, has been held virtually since his arrest last August. The conviction comes less than ten days before the legislative and provincial elections on 8 February, whose campaign has been marred by accusations of fraud and repression against the PTI, the party founded by Imran Khan.

At the heart of the matter was a diplomatic cable from Pakistan's ambassador to the United States, which Imran Khan presented as proof of an American plot against him, supported by the Pakistani military. The United States and the Pakistani army have denied this claim.