It is the longest valid jail sentence the cricket star-turned-politician, who has been detained since August 2023, has received.

He has faced charges in over 100 cases, ranging from leaking state secrets to selling state gifts – all of which he has decried as politically motivated.

The latest case has been described by Pakistani authorities as the largest the country has seen, though the country has seen huge financial scandals in the past, some of which involved former leaders.

Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were accused of receiving a parcel of land as a bribe from a real estate tycoon through the Al-Qadir Trust, which the couple had set up while he was in office.

In exchange, investigators said, Khan used £190m ($232m) repatriated by the UK’s National Crime Agency to pay the tycoon’s court fines.

Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party argued that the land was donated to the trust for a spiritual education centre and was not used for Khan’s personal gain.

In a post on X, PTI chairman Gohar Ali Khan said that the former prime minister “has done no wrong” and that this was a “politically motivated unfair trial”.

“But [Imran Khan] will not give in, he will not give up, he will not break,” he wrote.

Friday’s verdict comes after multiple delays as Khan’s party held talks with the government.

After his conviction on Friday, Khan told reporters in the courtroom that he would “neither make any deal nor seek any relief.”

Khan’s prison sentence of 14 years is the maximum that could be given in the case. He has also been fined more than £4,000.

His wife has been sentenced to seven years and fined more than £2,000. Bibi, who has been out on bail since last October, was taken into custody in court after her sentence was announced.

In 2023, Khan was sentenced to three years in prison for not declaring money earned from selling gifts he had received while in office.

Last year, Khan received a 14-year jail sentence over the selling of state gifts, and another 10 years for leaking state secrets. Both those sentences were suspended months later.

Despite being in jail and barred from holding public office, Khan still looms large over Pakistan’s political scene. Last year’s election saw candidates backed by Imran Khan winning the most number of seats out of all the parties.

Khan’s prosecution has triggered large-scale protests by his supporters – which have been met with a crackdown from authorities. Thousands of protesters have been arrested and many injured in clashes with the police.

The court said it handed down sentences of between two to 10 years’ imprisonment in connection with attacks on military facilities last year.

Protests erupted nationwide in May 2023 after security forces arrested Khan during his appearance at the High Court on charges of corruption – allegations that he called politically motivated.

Thousands of Khan’s supporters stormed government buildings and military installations and the government responded with a crackdown on his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

At least 1,400 protesters were arrested last year, police said, but only about 100 of the people detained have faced military trials.

The army said full justice will only be served when the masterminds behind the protests are punished.

A Supreme Court ruling last year provisionally allowed military courts to try civilian suspects.

“All sentences announced by the military courts are disproportionate and excessive,” a spokesman for the PTI party said, adding that “these sentences are rejected”.

Amnesty International has said that trying civilians in military courts is “contrary to international law” and adds that it is “purely an intimidation tactic, designed to crack down on dissent”.

Pakistan’s army has heavily influenced the nuclear-armed country for most of its existence and is a crucial behind-the-scenes player.

Former Pakistan cricket star Khan was elected prime minister in 2018, but fell out with the country’s powerful army.

After a series of defections, he lost his majority in parliament.

He was ousted after he lost a confidence vote in April 2022, four years into his tenure.

Since then, he had been a vocal critic of the government and the country’s army.

In October 2022, he was disqualified from holding public office, accused of incorrectly declaring details of presents from foreign dignitaries and proceeds from their alleged sale.

The next month, he survived a gun attack on his convoy while holding a protest march.

In a message posted on X, Khan, who has been imprisoned since August 2023 on numerous charges, announced the formation of a five-member negotiation team.

The team aims to discuss two key demands with the government: the release of under-trial prisoners and the establishment of a judicial commission to investigate the events of May 9, 2023 and November 26, 2024 – two dates on which Khan’s supporters held major protests but faced a backlash from the government and security forces.

“If these two demands are not accepted, a civil disobedience movement will begin on December 14. The government will bear full responsibility for the consequences,” Khan’s post in Urdu read.

“As part of the movement, we will urge overseas Pakistanis to limit remittances and start a boycott campaign. In the second phase, we will escalate our actions further.”

The announcement comes as Khan was indicted for his involvement in an attack on military headquarters on May 9 last year, while he was also slapped with charges of “terrorism” for his role in protests that besieged the federal capital last month.

Khan’s call for protests in Islamabad mobilised thousands of supporters, primarily from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, a province governed by his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

The crowd, which was led by Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, departed on November 24 and eventually reached Islamabad two days later after crossing several roadblocks and obstacles, but was met with brute force from the state.

A late-night security operation involving paramilitary Rangers and police dispersed the crowd in less than three hours. Bushra Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur fled back to the province amid the crackdown.

While the government accused PTI supporters of causing the deaths of four security personnel during the protests, it has denied any civilian casualties.

The PTI leadership, after issuing conflicting statements regarding the number of deaths, has said at least 12 people belonging to the party died during the protest, of which at least 10 were shot.

Fawad Chaudhry, a senior PTI leader and former federal minister, criticised the government for its treatment of Khan, who he claimed was being held in harsh conditions.

“Keeping a former prime minister in a death cell without basic necessities will only deepen resentment and widen the rift,” Chaudhry said.

He emphasised that the government’s actions left Khan with no option but to escalate his protests.

“This call for civil disobedience is conditional on the success or failure of negotiations, but it is a serious step. If overseas Pakistanis, particularly those from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, halt remittances, it will significantly impact the government’s economic plans,” he said.

Pakistan’s economy is highly reliant on foreign remittances. Overseas Pakistanis send close to $30bn back home every year. Central bank figures show that in the first 10 months this year, $28bn have already been sent to the country.

Political analyst Fahd Hussain believes Khan’s call for civil disobedience reflects an attempt to regain momentum after the perceived failure of the recent protests in Islamabad.

“Organising a mass movement so soon after the ‘final call’ may not be easy. The party must first reorganise after the chaos,” Hussain said.

This is not the first time Khan has called for civil disobedience. In 2014, he led a similar campaign against then-Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s government, urging supporters to stop paying taxes and utility bills.

However, the movement ended with a whimper a few months later, following the armed attack on the Army Public School in Peshawar, in which more than 140 children were killed by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). As the Pakistani government planned to launch a major military operation against the armed group, all political parties were brought together to consult and present a united front. The PTI, which was in the midst of a sit-in that had lasted for more than 100 days, also decided to end its protest.

Imtiaz Gul, head of the Center for Research and Security Studies (CRSS) in Islamabad, views civil disobedience as a way to pressure the state when a party faces the full might of government machinery.

“These tactics may not yield immediate results but can keep the government on edge and highlight Khan’s demands nationally and internationally,” Gul said.

Khan, who served as prime minister from August 2018 to April 2022, claims his removal through a parliamentary no-confidence vote was orchestrated by the military, in collusion with the United States and political rivals. The military has consistently denied these allegations.

Islamabad-based political analyst Cyril Almeida believes Khan’s fate hinges on either street protests or a deal with the military establishment, led by current army chief, General Asim Munir, who took over the command in November 2022.

Munir was previously appointed as the head of the Inter-Services Intelligence, Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency, under Khan’s governance before being removed only eight months into the job.

“Street protests complement negotiations, raising the cost on the government and military for keeping him in jail. But the problem remains the same, the current army chief Asim Munir is implacably, perhaps irrevocably, opposed to Imran Khan being a major governing figure again,” Almeida, the Islamabad-based analyst said.

“So long as Munir is around and in control of his military, Khan’s chances of a negotiated settlement are dim.”

Just a day earlier, faith healer Bibi – wrapped in a white shawl, her face covered by a white veil – stood atop a shipping container on the edge of the city as thousands of her husband’s devoted followers waved flags and chanted slogans beneath her.

It was the latest protest to flare since Khan, the 59-year-old cricketing icon-turned-politician, was jailed more than a year ago after falling foul of the country’s influential military which helped catapult him to power.

“My children and my brothers! You have to stand with me,” Bibi cried on Tuesday afternoon, her voice cutting through the deafening roar of the crowd.

“But even if you don’t,” she continued, “I will still stand firm.

“This is not just about my husband. It is about this country and its leader.”

It was, noted some watchers of Pakistani politics, her political debut.

But as the sun rose on Wednesday morning, there was no sign of Bibi, nor the thousands of protesters who had marched through the country to the heart of the capital, demanding the release of their jailed leader.

While other PMs have fallen out with Pakistan’s military in the past, Khan’s refusal to stay quiet behind bars is presenting an extraordinary challenge – escalating the standoff and leaving the country deeply divided.Exactly what happened to the so-called “final march”, and Bibi, when the city went dark is still unclear.

All eyewitnesses like Samia* can say for certain is that the lights went out suddenly, plunging D Chowk, the square where they had gathered, into blackness.

As loud screams and clouds of tear gas blanketed the square, Samia describes holding her husband on the pavement, bloodied from a gun shot to his shoulder.

“Everyone was running for their lives,” she later told BBC Urdu from a hospital in Islamabad, adding it was “like doomsday or a war”.”His blood was on my hands and the screams were unending.”But how did the tide turn so suddenly and decisively?

Just hours earlier, protesters finally reached D Chowk late afternoon on Tuesday. They had overcome days of tear gas shelling and a maze of barricaded roads to get to the city centre.

Many of them were supporters and workers of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the party led by Khan.

He had called for the march from his jail cell, where he has been for more than a year on charges he says are politically motivated.Now Bibi – his third wife, a woman who had been largely shrouded in mystery and out of public view since their unexpected wedding in 2018 – was leading the charge.

“We won’t go back until we have Khan with us,” she declared as the march reached D Chowk, deep in the heart of Islamabad’s government district.

Insiders say even the choice of destination – a place where her husband had once led a successful sit in – was Bibi’s, made in the face of other party leader’s opposition, and appeals from the government to choose another gathering point.

Her being at the forefront may have come as a surprise. Bibi, only recently released from prison herself, is often described as private and apolitical. Little is known about her early life, apart from the fact she was a spiritual guide long before she met Khan. Her teachings, rooted in Sufi traditions, attracted many followers – including Khan himself.

Was she making her move into politics – or was her sudden appearance in the thick of it a tactical move to keep Imran Khan’s party afloat while he remains behind bars?

For critics, it was a move that clashed with Imran Khan’s oft-stated opposition to dynastic politics.

There wasn’t long to mull the possibilities.

After the lights went out, witnesses say that police started firing fresh rounds of tear gas at around 21:30 local time (16:30 GMT).The crackdown was in full swing just over an hour later.

At some point, amid the chaos, Bushra Bibi left.

Videos on social media appeared to show her switching cars and leaving the scene. The BBC couldn’t verify the footage.

By the time the dust settled, her container had already been set on fire by unknown individuals.

By 01:00 authorities said all the protesters had fled.

Eyewitnesses have described scenes of chaos, with tear gas fired and police rounding up protesters.

One, Amin Khan, said from behind an oxygen mask that he joined the march knowing that, “either I will bring back Imran Khan or I will be shot”.

The authorities have have denied firing at the protesters. They also said some of the protesters were carrying firearms.The BBC has seen hospital records recording patients with gunshot injuries.

However, government spokesperson Attaullah Tarar told the BBC that hospitals had denied receiving or treating gunshot wound victims.

He added that “all security personnel deployed on the ground have been forbidden” from having live ammunition during protests.

But one doctor told BBC Urdu that he had never done so many surgeries for gunshot wounds in a single night.

“Some of the injured came in such critical condition that we had to start surgery right away instead of waiting for anaesthesia,” he said.

While there has been no official toll released, the BBC has confirmed with local hospitals that at least five people have died.Police say at least 500 protesters were arrested that night and are being held in police stations. The PTI claims some people are missing.

And one person in particular hasn’t been seen in days: Bushra Bibi.

“She abandoned us,” said one PTI supporter.Others defended her. “It wasn’t her fault,” insisted another. “She was forced to leave by the party leaders.”

Political commentators have been more scathing.“Her exit damaged her political career before it even started,” said Mehmal Sarfraz, a journalist and analyst.

But was that even what she wanted?

Khan has previously dismissed any thought his wife might have her own political ambitions – “she only conveys my messages,” he said in a statement attributed to him on his X account.

The crackdown on the protestors was swift. Although Khan’s supporters had managed to reach the centre of the city, by sunset on Tuesday the authorities had dispersed them.One government source told local media that the police had arrested more than 500 PTI supporters and the interior minister said that his wife Bushra Bibi, who had been central to the protest, had left the area.The PTI have claimed that several of their party workers were killed during the crackdown and appealed for an investigation.

Overnight the two sources at a nearby hospital who said that they had received four bodies of civilians with gunshot wounds. Pakistan’s information minister said the authorities had resisted firing on protesters.

Islamabad had been put under lockdown, with a heavy security presence deployed in anticipation of clashes with convoys of PTI supporters.

The convoys were led by PTI leader Ali Amin Gandapur and Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi, who was released from prison in October and has since taken a more prominent role in trying to mobilise support for Khan.

Reports say Gandapur and Bushra Bibi have left Islamabad and returned to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, where their convoy had come from.

Protesters were reported to have responded to a “final” call from Khan, asking them to “fight till the end” until their demands are met.

Their destination was D-Chowk near central government buildings in Islamabad, and the site of political rallies and protests since the 1980s.

But only some of the protesters made it that far.

By Tuesday evening – just hours after protesters first reached the square – security officers had successfully cleared the area. As darkness fell, the lights were switched off – with only police officers and paramilitary soldiers left behind.

Khan has been in prison for more than a year on charges he says are politically motivated.

Even from behind bars, the former cricket star has proved a powerful player in Pakistan politics. During elections in February his party, which had been banned from standing and was forced to run candidates as independents, emerged as the single largest bloc.

However, they fell short of a majority and their rivals united to form a new government.

The PTI has called for election results to be overturned because they say the vote was rigged, a claim disputed by the government.

Authorities reopened roads linking the capital with the rest of the country, ending a four-day lockdown, Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi said on Wednesday, confirming that the city  had been cleared.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, a key aide to Khan, said hundreds of protesters who had marched to Islamabad demanding the release of the cricketer-turned-politician had been shot and thousands were arrested in the crackdown. In a separate statement, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party also said eight people were killed, a claim dismissed by the government.

Police had earlier said no lethal arms were used in Tuesday night’s operation and nearly 1,000 protesters had been arrested.

On Wednesday morning, city workers were cleaning up debris and clearing the shipping containers that had been used by authorities to block roads leading into the capital to halt the protesters’ march.

The protest was called by the PTI, which planned to stage a sit-in to press for the release of Khan, who has been jailed since August 2023 in connection with more than 150 cases. Khan alleges the charges are politically motivated and intended to prevent his comeback in contested elections this year.

Khan’s wife, Bushra Bibi, spearheaded the convoy that on Tuesday broke through security lines leading to the edge of the Red Zone, which houses government buildings and embassies.

More than 10,000 protesters confronted about 20,000 security personnel in deadly clashes that saw several people killed, including four paramilitary soldiers.

Late on Tuesday, the army took control of D-Chowk, a large square in the Red Zone where protesters had gathered.

PTI announced a “temporary suspension” of the protests, broadcaster Geo News reported on Wednesday.

Mohammad Asim, PTI’s president for the city of Peshawar in the party’s northern stronghold of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, told news agency Reuters that the party would “chalk out the new strategy later after proper consultation”.

He said Bibi and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur, a key Khan ally, had returned “safely” to the province from Islamabad. Police are known to be seeking Bibi’s arrest.

Police have arrested more than 4,000 Khan supporters since Friday and suspended mobile and internet services in some parts of the country. However, services have now been restored.

The government – which had already introduced a ban on public gatherings -responded by blocking Islamabad’s streets with shipping containers, and bussing in police from across the country.Restrictions also appear to have been brought in on some internet services, while schools and colleges have been shut because of fears of violence.Pakistan’s interior minister said the protesters had been offered an alternative venue for their protest but had refused.Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who blamed the protesters for the deaths of the four soldiers on the protesters, dismissed the march as “extremism”.”These disruptive elements do not seek revolution but bloodshed,” he said in a statement.