Islamabad:

A Pakistan court overturned ex-Prime Minister Imran Khan’s conviction on illegal marriage charges on Saturday, though he remains jailed over allegations of inciting riots.

Khan was slapped with a trio of convictions in the days before the February elections — cases he says were orchestrated to prevent his return to power.

Those cases have now all been at least partially rolled back on appeal, with a treason conviction carrying a decade jail term overturned in April, and a 14-year graft sentence suspended in June, though the conviction still stands.

Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi had also been sentenced to seven years for allegedly marrying too soon after her divorce in a breach of Islamic law.

But Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Court judge Afzal Majoka announced in court that the “appeals of both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi are accepted”.

A spokesman for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said the charges had been “dismissed”.

Khan remains locked up, though, after a court this week cancelled his bail over accusations he incited riots by his supporters in May 2023.

Courting Controversy

Earlier this month a UN panel of experts found Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office”.

“Thus, from the outset, that prosecution was not grounded in law and was reportedly instrumentalised for a political purpose,” it said, calling for his immediate release after nearly a year in jail.

Candidates loyal to Khan won the most seats in the national election but were kept from government by an alliance of military-backed rival parties.

Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted by a no-confidence vote after falling out with the military establishment, which wields huge influence over civilian politics.

In opposition he waged a campaign of defiance against the top generals, who directly ruled Pakistan for decades of its history, even accusing them of an assassination attempt that wounded him.

But the former cricket star’s comeback campaign was hobbled by scores of legal cases, which analysts say were likely brought at the behest of the military establishment.

Khan was first briefly arrested in May 2023, sparking nationwide unrest from PTI supporters, some of which targeted military facilities.

The government and military cited the attacks as justification for a sweeping crackdown on PTI, which saw its senior leadership decimated by arrests and defections.

An anti-terrorism court in the eastern city of Lahore on Tuesday refused to bail him as police investigate his alleged role in the unrest, despite the fact he was behind bars at the time.

Surviving The Crackdown

PTI candidates were forced to stand as independents in the February 8 elections, which had been repeatedly delayed amid political chaos.

Khan’s arrest and conviction for graft back in August 2023 meant he was barred from standing for office himself, confined to a cell in Adiala Jail south of the capital Islamabad.

Despite that, candidates loyal to PTI secured more seats than any other party.

Nonetheless they were blocked from power by a broad coalition of parties considered more pliable to the influence of the military.

Polling day itself was marred by allegations of vote-tampering amid a nationwide mobile internet blackout Islamabad said it orchestrated over security concerns.

(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

Islamabad:

A court in Pakistan granted on Wednesday a request by the wife of former Prime Minister Imran Khan to shift to jail, her lawyer said, instead of house arrest ordered by the government because of security concerns.

Bushra Bibi, detained at Khan’s hilltop mansion in Islamabad since the couple’s January conviction on charges of illegally selling state gifts, had challenged the house arrest, her lawyer Naeem Panjutha posted on social media platform X.

Through her lawyers Bibi had filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court, asking to be shifted to the jail.

The court ordered authorities to shift her to Adyala jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Khan, 70, a former cricket superstar, is serving his 14-year sentence, his party said in a statement.

The party said Bibi had complained of being served contaminated food by the authorities at the house, which was declared a sub-jail.

The authorities have denied the accusation.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Islamabad:

An accountability court in Islamabad barred former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, from issuing statements against state institutions and officials, The Express Tribune reported.

Judge Basir Javed Rana ordered the PTI founder and his spouse from speaking against state institutions in the courtroom during the hearing of a petition seeking a fair trial.

The court also ordered the media to avoid publishing such political provocative statements which target state institutions and their officials.

According to the order, the PTI chief made provocative political statements against senior officials of state institutions, including the army, the judiciary, and the army chief, as per The Express Tribune.

“Such statements disrupt judicial decorum and also obstruct judicial functions such as the dispensation of justice,” the order added.

In its order, the court also instructed the prosecution, the accused, and their defence counsels to not make political or inflammatory statements that may disrupt the decorum of the court.

Khan, who was PM from 2018-2022, remains jailed in multiple cases, including a 14-year jail sentence for him and his wife for the illegal sale of state gifts.

Khan was first imprisoned after being handed a three-year prison sentence in August 2023 by the Election Commission for not declaring assets earned from selling gifts worth more than PKR 140 million rupees (USD 501,000) in state possession and received during his premiership.

In January, Khan and wife Bushra Bibi were handed 14-year jail terms following a separate investigation by the country’s top anti-graft body into the same charges involving state gifts.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Islamabad:

Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Bibi has been “confined to a small room” despite her Bani Gala residence here being declared a sub-jail, a senior leader of the jailed former Pakistan prime minister’s party claimed on Monday.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf general secretary Omar Ayub, who has been nominated by the party and Sunni Ittehad Council lawmakers as the leader of the opposition in the National Assembly, said Bushra Bibi’s “meal issues have not yet been resolved”, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Mr Ayub, who was also the opposition’s joint candidate who lost to Khan’s rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party’s Shehbaz Sharif in the prime ministerial election, said, Bushra Bibi has been “confined to one small room” despite her residence being declared a sub-jail.

“We demand that you do not consider Bushra Bibi Imran Khan’s weakness.” She was the former premier’s strength, he added.

Last month, a Pakistani court was informed by the authorities of Adiala Jail that Bushra Bibi, 49, cannot be shifted to the prison due to a “security threat”.

The information was submitted to the Islamabad High Court while it was hearing a petition filed by Bushra seeking transfer from the Bani Gala sub-jail to Adiala, The Express Tribune newspaper reported.

Bushra is imprisoned at Mr Khan’s Bani Gala residence after an accountability court sentenced the couple to 14 years in jail in the Toshakhana corruption case last month.

Mr Khan, 71, is lodged at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi. Both of them have been convicted with multiple years’ sentences in the Toshakhana expensive gift case and the iddat case which declared their marriage as un-Islamic.

The PTI party last month also expressed concern about the health of the wife of the incarcerated leader. The party claimed that there was a “serious threat” to her life and the Pakistani authorities were denying her medical aid.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)