KARACHI, Pakistan

A court in Pakistan on Thursday sentenced nearly 200 defendants, including opposition leaders in the two chambers of parliament, for their involvement in attacks on military installations in 2023, according to court records.

The anti-terrorism court in the northeastern city of Faisalabad sentenced Omer Ayub Khan, and Sen. Shibli Faraz -- opposition leaders in the National Assembly and the Senate, respectively -- along with the other lawmakers to 30 years each in jail in multiple cases.

The defendants were involved in three cases related to attacks on security installations, including the local office of the premier intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence, or the ISI, according to court records.

All of the defendants belong to former Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party (PTI), the largest opposition party in both chambers of the federal parliament.

Seventy-seven of those who were accused, including former Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry and Zain Qureshi, son of incarcerated former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, were acquitted because of a lack of evidence.

The latest judgments came days after an anti-terrorism court in the northeastern Sargodha district convicted Ahmed Chattha from the federal parliament and Malik Ahmed Bhachar, who is the opposition leader in the provincial Punjab legislative assembly, for their involvement in violence during protests against the arrest of Khan on May 9, 2023.

The judgments can be appealed to the high court, and subsequently the Supreme Court.

Several military installations, including the army headquarters, commonly known as the General Headquarters in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, were stormed by protesters after Khan was briefly arrested in a corruption case. The PTI denies involvement.

Khan is languishing in a jail in Rawalpindi after he was sentenced to 14 years in a corruption case. He is facing a slew of cases, which he said are politically motivated.​​​​​​​