 Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan faced blows on two successive days as he was sentenced to 10 and 14 years in prison in separate cases. The first sentence was in what is called a cipher case and the second was in the Toshakhana case. The verdicts came days ahead of elections in Pakistan where his party, the PTI, has faced a major crackdown. What does this mean for Imran Khan and his political future? And for Pakistan as a whole, we go to Abdul. Abdul, thanks for joining us. So, maybe could you first take us through what these two cases are for which Imran Khan has been sentenced to 10 and 14 years in prison. Well Prashant, on Wednesday, Imran Khan from Foreign Prime Minister and his foreign minister, Samoamad Qureshi, were found guilty in kind of making public a secret document which basically is known as cipher case. Basically it is related to a secret cable which was sent by the then Pakistani ambassador in US in which basically he details about how US officials are pressurizing, basically want the removal of Imran Khan. This document became a public issue when Imran Khan was facing a no confidence vote during in April 2022. He basically claimed that this amounts to external interference in Pakistan's policymaking and basically goes against the independence of Pakistan. The other case in which he was found guilty on Thursday the next day is basically called, is popularly known as Toshakhana case. It is he along with his wife Bushra were found guilty by another court in kind of illegally selling some of their state gifts. And in both the case in this case he was both he and Bushra BB were sentenced for 14 years in prison. They were also fined around 2.5, 2.7 billion dollars each and they were basically barred from holding public office for next 10 years by the court. In both of the cases of course there are claims made by Pakistan, Tehri Kensoff, Imran Khan's party that they have been kind of these are mistrials and they will file an appeal against both the cases in the higher judiciary. Nevertheless meanwhile it basically mean that Imran Khan will remain inside jail and of course there are more cases which are pending against him. So the sentencing on Wednesday and on Thursday basically adds to one further sentencing which he had got last year in which he was sentenced for 3 years in jail again related to illegally selling some of their state gifts. Right but what does this mean for his political future? There is also restrictions on his contesting for any political office as well. Well Prashant it is at this moment very difficult to talk about the exact impact these sentencing these convictions will have on Imran Khan's career, political career. Given the fact that both PTI and Imran Khan personally have decided say it claim that they are going to kind of appeal against the case and given the procedural lapses they have highlighted. If they are true the higher judiciary is most likely going to stay the verdict sorry going to stay the conviction and in that case it is not sure though in that case it will all depend on what happens in the February 7th elections. I'm sorry February 8 elections whether if PTI supported candidates of course most of them are contesting independently if they are able to secure majority in the Pakistani parliament of course anything can happen. If that does not happen it is more likely that Imran Khan's legal problems will continue given the fact that there are more than 100 cases more than 100 cases against him filed in different courts in different parts of the country. And even if he secures bail or gets his conviction suspended in these two cases he may be arrested again in another case. So it is not sure at this moment what will happen to Imran Khan. But one thing is quite sure that these convictions add to the general public perception in Pakistan about Imran Khan being persecuted by the political class and the army and this may increase in fact his popularity across Pakistan. There are already indications of indications through whatever surveys which have been conducted so far that he is the most popular figure for Prime Minister in the next next time. And if his party colleagues are able to secure majority in the Pakistani elections actually elections not anything is possible so yeah that is what. And finally Abdul could you take us through you know elections are just a few days away what does this verdict mean for the elections and for his party. Well Prashant see as I said before there is a very strong public perception about Imran Khan being persecuted by the state by the political class and the army in Pakistan for for standing against them standing against the U.S. State Dictators and this pitch has been used by PTI Pakistan, Terikin, Saaf, Imran Khan's party throughout these last one and a half years and they are also using it in the campaign which they are taking on the ground for February 8th elections for both national assembly and state assemblies some of the state assemblies. So given the perception a strong perception these convictions basically strengthen that public perception and this may lead to further consolidation of popular vote in favor of PTI candidates. PTI candidates are already campaigning with the with basically claims that they are being persecuted for standing with Imran Khan. They are also they are accusing the Pakistan election commission for kind of denying them a level playing field. For example the PTI as PTI's electoral symbol cricket bat was taken away, Imran Khan has been banned, made ineligible for contesting in the elections, his nomination got cancelled by the ECB. Then more basically has kind of led to a kind of new strategy which most of the PTI candidates have undertaken which basically is to contest the elections as independent candidates. And if they are able to take this campaign effectively to the ground and the people who believe that Imran Khan is persecuted decide to come out and vote on February 8th. So this may lead to a kind of PTI candidates getting enough seats in the parliament to kind of decide the fate of Imran Khan. Because since they are all contesting in the name of Imran Khan of course once they are able to secure some kind of majority they may try to kind of take him out of jail and make him prime minister. This is all of course speculation given the fact that opposition led by PPP and Ravash Sharif's party Avamili is also talking about these convictions in the way that it proves their claims of Imran Khan being corrupt inefficient. And then it depends on how it works out on the election day. So we should wait and watch what happens exactly on February 8th and it all depends on the results of the election. The picture is way more complicated and also has to do with a variety of EU policies. We go to Anna to understand more. Anna, thanks so much for joining us. Protests taking place in various parts of Europe today, one in Brussels if I'm not mistaken. And each of these has its own context but maybe could you give us an overall picture of what's happening first? The protests have been going on for the past weeks and essentially they covered most of Europe for now especially those countries which are some of the biggest agricultural producers in the European Union. So it all started from Poland we can say in a way but by today it has also spread out to France to Germany to Italy to Spain and so on. So what we are seeing are different struggles of course the farmers in different countries do have their specific requests but we also know that it's all part of a more general uproar against a set of European policies or maybe it would be even better to say the approach that the European Union has taken towards agriculture and farmers in Europe. So if you look at the news one of the things that is being singled out is that the farmers are actually protesting against the European Green New Deal. So against the environmental policies but I think that it's a bit wrong to reduce it to that because what we are seeing actually is farmers on the road blocking the ports blocking the roads because the European Union and the members of the European Union have disregarded their well-being and their rights for the past years. We do know that farmers especially smaller farmers have had very, very significant problems with keeping up with costs of production while at the same time they were getting less and less for the produce that they're putting on the market. Of course in the meantime we do know that big agricultural businesses are profiting, they're benefiting from the subsidies that the European Union is providing. So what we are seeing is of course a very complex story that has a lot to do with how food systems in Europe are structured right now and about the importance that the small farmers are given inside the system. Right Anna, in this context you mentioned some of the EU policies but that seems to be a larger structural thread like you said that connects many of these protests. So could you maybe go into a bit more detail about what are some of these policies? Well, one of the policies that has been on top of the demands of the farmers is of course part of the wider set of environmental policies which would see that they have to not use part of the land for growing produce in order to conserve the land and to encourage biodiversity, which is significant of course because you know often when we talk about environmental policies in Europe we do touch upon the differences that we have between the green policies that we know that we need to implement the well-being of workers in this case of farmers. So this is another thing that you know it's showing how difficult these two things can be to bring together. But what it also shows is that you know while the European politicians are quite local to say that maybe not to say but to present it as it's black or white issue so we either do one or we do the other. What basically is the truth that the policies that they are suggesting are not actually involving consultations with the workers, with the farmers directly. So they're not actually reflecting what's being demanded from the ground and what can be actually done on the ground as in the case of many other industrial policies that we have seen raised in Europe over the past years when it comes to the environment. We do know that you know there can be a better way to approach transition. It can be a just transition. Workers can be supported with inadequate dedication from the government to back that up. So now we are essentially witnessing something in the agricultural sector that we would otherwise expect also in other parts of the industry. Thank you so much Anna for that update. That's all we have in today's debrief. We'll be back with a fresh episode tomorrow. 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