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The
charge is related to a classified cable sent to Islamabad by
Pakistan's ambassador in the United States last year, which Khan
is accused of making public.
Former cricket star Khan denies that and said the contents of
the cable appeared in the media from other sources.
Lawyer Naeem Panjutha said the Islamabad High Court declined
Khan's application for bail and for the case to be dismissed.
"We will challenge it," he said in a post on the social media
platform X, formerly known as Twitter.
Khan has been at the centre of months of political turmoil in
nuclear-armed Pakistan that has shone a spotlight on the
powerful military's influence over civilian politics.
Khan was forced from office in 2022 after losing a no-confidence
vote in parliament. He said at the time the military was trying
to sideline him after he fell out with the generals over
disagreements about top security appointments.
The military, which has ruled Pakistan directly for significant
periods since independence in 1947, and wielded influence over
civilian governments at other times, denied engineering Khan's
ouster.
Khan has said the cable he has been accused of leaking was proof
of a U.S. conspiracy to push the military to oust him in the
2022 parliamentary vote because he had visited Moscow just
before Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Both the United States and the Pakistani military denied that.
Khan has had dozens of legal cases filed against him, which he
has denounced as an effort to keep him out of politics.
He has been convicted in one graft case and sentenced to three
years in jail. The sentence was suspended but he remains in
prison in connection with other cases.
Given his conviction, Khan, whose conservative, nationalistic
agenda won him considerable public support, can not take part in
a general election expected early next year.
(Reporting by Asif Shahzad; editing by Robert Birsel)
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