An accountability court on Sunday approved an eight-day physical remand each for Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, in a new graft reference.
This order came less than a day after the PTI founder and his wife were acquitted in the iddat or illegal marriage case. Their hopes of being released were dashed as the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) arrested them in a new Toshakhana reference.
Additional Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka had previously overturned the couple’s conviction, which had sentenced them to seven years in prison and a fine of Rs500,000 each. This conviction was based on Khawar Maneka, Bushra’s ex-husband, moving the court against the couple’s marriage, claiming their nikah was fraudulent.
However, immediately after the verdict overturning their conviction, a team from the anti-corruption watchdog led by Deputy Director Mohsin Haroon arrested the couple at Adiala Jail in connection with the new reference related to the alleged “misuse of power for acquiring Toshakhana gifts.”
The PTI was looking forward to their founder’s release, especially after a 13-member Supreme Court bench declared the party eligible for the allocation of reserved seats. This could have given a significant boost to the former ruling party.
However, the accountability court directed the NAB to interrogate the two suspects in Adiala jail and ordered the couple to be produced before the court on July 22.
Khan’s lawyer, Zaheer Abbas Chaudhary, said that the NAB had requested a 14-day physical remand of the PTI founder and Bushra. Chaudhary opposed the physical remand, stating they had engagements in the £190 million reference. He also argued that the ex-premier and his wife’s arrest was against the law, adding that their petition seeking bail was already being heard in the Supreme Court.
Imran Khan’s Legal Woes
Khan has been behind bars since August last year after he was sentenced in the Toshakhana criminal case and subsequently sentenced in other cases ahead of the February 8 elections.
Although the former PM has been granted bail in several May 9 cases registered in Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Faisalabad, an anti-terrorism court (ATC) last week canceled his bail in one of the May 9 cases registered against him and thousands of his supporters in connection with violence against the military and other state installations following his brief arrest in May 2023.
In June, the Islamabad High Court overturned Khan’s conviction on charges of leaking state secrets in the cipher case, wherein he was handed a 10-year prison sentence for making public a classified cable sent to Islamabad by Pakistan’s ambassador in Washington in 2022.
Additionally, Khan was given jail sentences—one of 14 years and another of three years—in two cases related to illegally acquiring and selling state gifts. Both sentences have been suspended by high courts while his appeals are heard; however, the conviction in both cases still stands.
