A Pakistani court suspended former Prime Minister Imran Khan's recent conviction on corruption charges, his lawyer Naeem Panjutha said, but it will not lead to his release as a judge has ordered his detention in another case.
A spokesman for Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party said the Islamabad High Court had overturned a lower court's decision this month to imprison him for three years, a judgement which barred him from contesting upcoming elections.
Khan was imprisoned after being sentenced to three years in jail for unlawfully selling state gifts during his tenure as prime minister from 2018 to 2022.
"The sentence has been suspended," Panjutha said on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter, adding, "God be praised."
Khan's legal team lodged the appeal against his conviction on the grounds that he was convicted without being given the right to defend himself.
The court also ordered Khan's release on bail, another one of his lawyers, Shoaib Shaheen, told reporters outside the court. But he will not be freed as he has been detained in at least one other case on charges of leaking state secrets.
A special court in Islamabad has ordered the jail authorities to keep Khan in judicial custody and present him before the court on Wednesday, according to an undated order seen by Reuters.
A Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) official, who requested anonymity, said Khan is charged with making public the contents of a confidential cable sent by Pakistan's ambassador to the United States and using it for political gain.
Khan's top aide, former foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, has already been arrested in the same case.
Khan alleges that the cable proves that his removal was at the behest of the US, which he said pressed Pakistan's military to topple his government because he had visited Russia shortly before its attack on Ukraine.
Both the US and the Pakistani military have denied that.
Khan faces dozens of cases, including charges of abetment to murder and orchestrating violent protests.
It is unclear how the ban on his contesting elections will be affected with the suspension of his sentence. National elections are due later this year, but they are likely to be delayed several months.
The suspension marks another win for Khan and comes a day after the Balochistan High Court dismissed sedition charges against him, saying they had been improperly filed.
Khan was also briefly jailed on graft charges in May, sparking days of civil unrest, but since then, his PTI party has been targeted by a major crackdown, which has vastly diminished his street power and seen most of his senior leadership jump ship or be locked away.
Islamabad said it was targeted by "anti-state" violence during backlash over that arrest.
But rights groups say authorities used overly broad anti-terror laws to suppress PTI, and the domestic press reported pressure to censor or smear Khan on the airwaves.
While Khan was imprisoned this month, Pakistan's parliament was dissolved at the request of his successor Shehbaz Sharif to pave the way for a caretaker government which will usher in elections in the coming months.
No date for the polls has yet been announced.
Khan, a former cricket star, surged to power in 2018 on a wave of popular support, an anti-corruption manifesto and the backing of the powerful military establishment.
When he was ousted in April last year, analysts said it was because he lost the support of those same generals who handed him the keys to office.
He was replaced by a shaky coalition of the dynastic parties which have historically ruled Pakistan.
But as an opposition politician, he waged an unprecedented campaign against the influential generals, who have staged at least three successful coups leading to decades of martial law.
