A Pakistani court has sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and his close ally former foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi to 10 years in jail in a case related to the leaking of state secrets.

According to The Iran Project,The verdicts issued on Tuesday come less than two weeks before Pakistan holds an election where  Imran Khan's party will faces restrictions in the votes. 

A special court that was set up in a prison in Rawalpindi issued the jail sentence for Imran Khan as part of the so-called cypher case which involves a diplomatic cable that the former prime minister says is a proof that his ouster from power in 2022 was a conspiracy.

Khan and Qureshi had been charged with leaking classified state documents.
Imran Khan was Pakistan's prime minister from 2018 to 2022 before he was ousted in a no confidence vote and after he lost the support of the nation’s powerful military figures.