Islamabad court rejects ex-PM Imran and wife Bushra’s pleas to suspend sentence in Iddat case

Imran Khan signs documents to submit surety bond over his bails in various cases at an office of Lahore High Court. File / AFP

Tariq Butt, Correspondent / Agencies

AAn Islamabad court rejected on Thursday a plea to suspend the jail terms of former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, whose marriage was ruled illegal under Islamic law.

The decision drew strong condemnation from Imran’s supporters and his party who were expecting the couple to be freed on bail.

Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran has been entangled in more than 200 legal cases since he was ousted in April 2022 in what he said was a campaign to keep him from power.

The 71-year-old and his wife Bushra Bibi were both sentenced to seven years in jail in February on charges that, under Islamic law, their marriage came too soon after Bushra Bibi’s divorce.

Imran Khan, who served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, has been detained since August last year and barred from standing for office.

However, the former international cricket star and his wife had their 14-year prison sentences for graft suspended by a Pakistan high court in April.

Imran Khan’s supporters protest outside the court in Islamabad on Thursday. AFP

Imran Khan then had a 10-year sentence for treason overturned this month but remains in Adiala Jail, south of the capital Islamabad, over the illegal marriage conviction.

He had been cleared for release before that trio of sentences in the days running up to Pakistan’s Feb. 8 general elections.

Rana Sanaullah, an adviser to Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif, said this week “the government will try to keep him locked up for as long as possible.”

Additional Sessions Judge Afzal Majoka announced the verdict on the appeals against the sentence, which was reserved on June 25.

Quickly reacting to the verdict, PTI Secretary General Omar Ayub Khan said they would challenge it in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) immediately.

Following the announcement, PTI workers began protesting outside the court and blocked the road. The protesters include women who are chanting slogans in favour of the PTI founder. Heavy police deployment was present outside the court.

Meanwhile, the hearing on the central plea related to the annulment of the couple’s conviction is set to take place on July 2.

In the 10-page order, the court mentioned that there was no reason to suspend the sentence. There is no ground for suspension of the sentence is available to both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi, it said.

The court decreed that merits could not be discussed during the hearing of applications for suspension of sentence or release on bail. “The sentence awarded to both the accused is neither short-term, nor have they served much of the sentence,” it added.

The judgement referred to the Muhammad Riaz vs state case in the Pakistan Criminal Journal wherein it had been stated that bail was a right of the under-trial accused, not of the convicted.

Imran Khan, who is currently incarcerated at the Adaila Jail in Rawalpindi, was likely to be released if the verdict was in his favour. He has already been acquitted in the Toshakhana and cipher cases.

IMr. Khan’s supporters protest outside the court in Islamabad on Thursday. AFP

Imran Khan has also been granted bail in the May 9 cases registered in Lahore, Rawalpindi, and Faisalabad. On the other hand, the Federal Investigation Agency also twice interrogated him in jail regarding an anti-state post shared on X, formerly Twitter. There is, however, no new case against the PTI founder.

The Iddat case first came to the surface when one Muhammad Hanif had claimed that Bushra Bibi was divorced by her former husband in November 2017 and married Khan on January 1, 2018, despite the fact that her Iddat period — the time a woman goes into isolation after her husband dies or divorces her — had not ended, “which is against the Sharia and Muslim norms.”

A district and sessions court in Islamabad then rejected the plea and termed it “inadmissible.” It had said that it fell outside its jurisdiction, prior to which the petitioner withdrew his plea.

Later, Bushra Bibi’s former husband Khawar Maneka had filed a complaint against the “un-Islamic marriage” of Imran Khan and her in the court of Civil Judge Qudratullah on November 25, 2023, under the under Sections 34, 496, 496-B of the Pakistan Penal Code.

The couple were indicted in the Iddat case on Jan.16, 2024. After a 14-hour hearing in the Adiala Jail, the trial court reserved its verdict on Feb.2 and handed out seven years imprisonment each to Imran and Bushra on Feb.3.

The case was also earlier heard by Sessions Judge Shahrukh Arjumand against whom Maneka had indicated a lack of confidence, seeking its transfer to the court of Judge Majoka by the Islamabad High Court.