Pak court sentences Imran Khan\'s supporter to 5 years jail for tweeting against Army

LAHORE: A court in Pakistan's Punjab province has sentenced a supporter of former prime minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party to five years in prison for “defaming” the Army on Twitter, a court official said on Thursday.

Additional Sessions Judge, Faisalabad, Munsif Khan sentenced Sikandar Zaman (in his 20s) to five years jail term and imposed a fine of Rs 250,000 for making “obnoxious tweets against Pakistan Army and its senior officers", the official told PTI.

He said Zaman is a supporter of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party and he made a series of tweets against the Army and soldiers killed in a helicopter crash in Balochistan's Lasbela in August 2022.

Six Army officers and soldiers were killed in the crash. Following this, a social media campaign emerged, which was condemned by the Army as “insensitive” and the FIA began tracing the culprits behind it, the Dawn newspaper reported.

"Sikandar's tweets were against the then army chief Gen Qamar Javed Bajwa's dethroning of Imran Khan," the official said.

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) in August arrested Sikandar from his residence in Faisalabad, some 130 km from Lahore.

Since the ouster of the Imran Khan government in April last year, social media saw more often trends against Gen Bajwa and Pakistan Army.

Khan was ousted as Pakistan's prime minister in April last year after the National Assembly passed a no-confidence motion against him.