Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

It is alleged that jail authorities had kept Imran Khan in isolation for approximately 22 hours daily over the last six months without any legal sanction. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Pakistan’s jailed former PM Imran Khan’s lawyer Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry (right), arrives to submit appeals against their convictions for graft, at the High Court in Islamabad on January 27, 2025.
| Photo Credit: AFP

Pakistan’s jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, on Monday (January 27, 2025) challenged in a High Court their conviction in the Al-Qadir Trust case.

An accountability court in Islamabad convicted the former first couple in the high-profile £190 million case in a much-anticipated ruling earlier this month.

As already indicated by the party, their lawyers filed an appeal in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against the conviction and sentence, Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf said in a WhatsApp message.

“Legal Team representing Imran Khan & Bushra BiBi, challenges Al-Qadir Trust case decision at IHC,” the party said, adding that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) “maliciously misused its authority by announcing sentence, with incomplete investigation”.

It further stated that the decision to approach the high court was taken to annul the decision and order acquittal of the former first couple.

Judge Nasir Javed Rana of anti-corruption court announced the reserved verdict on January 17, convicting Khan and his wife Bibi guilty of corruption in the case and sentencing them to 14 and seven years respectively in prison.

The NAB, the top anti-corruption body, in December 2023 had filed the case against Khan, Bibi and six others, accusing them of causing loss to the tune of Rs 50 billion to the national kitty.

However, only the former first couple has been prosecuted as all others, including a property tycoon, were out of the country.

Also Read | Imran Khan moves Lahore HC for post-arrest bail in eight cases linked to May 9 riot

The case was based on the charge that an amount of £190 million pound, returned to Pakistan by the U.K.’s National Crime Agency as part of a settlement with a property tycoon was misused.

The funds were reportedly intended for the national treasury but were allegedly redirected for personal benefit of the businessman who helped Bibi and Khan to set up a university.

Bibi, as a trustee of the Al-Qadir Trust, was accused of benefiting from this settlement, including acquiring 458 kanals of land for Al-Qadir University in Jhelum.

Supporters of the former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), attend a symbolic prayer for the people the party claims were killed during a protest in Islamabad this week, in Peshawar, Pakistan, November 29, 2024.
| Photo Credit: Reuters

An anti-terrorism court on Monday (December 2, 2024) sent former prime minister Imran Khan on a 14-day judicial remand in connection with seven cases related to the recent protests by his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.

Mr. Khan, 72, was presented before the anti-terrorism court judge at Adiala jail, where he has been incarcerated for months, after the completion of a six-day police remand in a separate case about his party’s September 28 protest in Rawalpindi.

Judge Amjad Ali Shah presided over the hearing, during which the court approved Khan’s judicial remand in the New Town police station case, as well as in six other cases.

The judge rejected a police request for physical remand in six other cases registered between September 28 and October 5. He ordered that Mr. Khan should be sent to jail on judicial remand.

The former premier was arrested in six cases related to the protests by his party. Seven cases, including the New Town case, had been registered against him for the protests on September 28, October 4, and October 5.

The new cases have been registered against Mr. Khan in various police stations for giving calls of protests that resulted in violent incidents.

Mr. Khan’s party launched a protest on November 24 to give a sit-in at D-Chowk in Islamabad’s Red Zone, where most government buildings are located. The protest, which turned violent, left some security personnel and civilians dead.

The protest was promoted by Mr. Khan who on November 13 issued a “final call” for nationwide protests, demanding the restoration of the PTI’s electoral mandate, the release of detained party members, and the reversal of the 26th Amendment, which he said had strengthened a “dictatorial regime”.

So far, he has not been arrested in the latest 28 cases related to the November 24 protest.

Mr. Khan was arrested by the Rawalpindi police in the New Town police after he was granted bail in the second Toshakhana case last month.

Dozens of cases have been registered against him since his government fell in April 2022 due to a no-confidence vote.

Supporters of jailed former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), wave party flags during a rally in Islamabad, Pakistan September 8, 2024.
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Top leaders of former jailed prime minister Imran Khan were arrested by Pakistani police on Monday (September 9, 2024) from outside Parliament House following a National Assembly session, according to media reports.

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party leaders Barrister Gohar Ali Khan, Sher Afzal Khan Marwat, and Advocate Shoaib Shaheen were arrested by Islamabad police, police spokesperson Jawad Taqi was quoted as saying by Dawn.

Also read: Pakistan at risk of parochialism, says former PM Imran Khan

Referring to Marwat’s arrest, who was reportedly the first to be taken into custody, the PTI said in a post on X that the “ PMLN government should be completely ashamed of this step against a sitting MNA.” “This must be considered a direct attack on democracy,” the post said.

The party accused the capital police of carrying out “illegal orders” and called on the inspector general (IG) of police, Islamabad to “stop this act”.

Marwat was arrested for violating regulations devised under a new law —Peaceful Assembly and Public Order Bill, 2024, sources told Geo News, adding that the PTI lawmaker was accused of clashing with police personnel a day earlier.

In another post on X, PTI condemned the “illegal” arrest of party chairman Barrister Gohar.

“This is a moment of shame for the entire parliament, as this must be considered a direct attack on the remaining democracy in Pakistan.

“Speaker NA should be ashamed for allowing such disrespect of parliament. Pakistan has descended further into the undeclared Martial Law,” the post said.

A statement on X from Marwat’s account said: “The state has once again proved how afraid it is of (Imran) Khan and his soldiers!” “Remember that the person they are dragging this badly is not a terrorist or murderer. His only sin is that he considers Imran Khan his mentor, raises his voice for the poor, raises his voice for Pakistan, talks about the supremacy of democracy, the freedom of Pakistanis, and the rule of law!” Omar Ayub Khan, the leader of the Opposition, condemned the arrests and alleged that Islamabad Police had formed teams to arrest him, PTI leader Zartaj Gul Wazir, and “other colleagues”.

“This fascist regime and its backers have gone completely mad,” Omar wrote in a post on X.

“Just found out that they have included my name along with Zartaj Gul sahiba and other colleagues in 2 additional FIRs. Islamabad Police teams have been made for our arrests.” He added that other PTI lawmakers were still inside Parliament House, unable to leave due to the presence of police.

“Our only crime is that we have dared to challenge the status quo and raised our voice for our beloved leader, PM Imran Khan sahib. We will continue doing so,” he added.

The 71-year-old former-cricketer-turned-politician faces a slew of legal cases and has been in prison for nearly a year after being sentenced in a graft case.

Khan was arrested on August 5 last year after his conviction in the first Toshakhana corruption case filed by the Election Commission of Pakistan. Since then, he has been in jail in different cases.

PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari strongly condemned the arrests, demanding leaders be released immediately.

“Over a year now and they are still using the same tactics that have failed again and again,” he said in a statement on X.

“These illegal arrests won’t change anything. Only increase the public’s anger and hate towards this puppet government and backers.”

Sources said that alongside Omar and Zartaj, more PTI leaders, including Hammad Azhar, Kanwal Shauzab, Naeem Haider Panjutha, Amir Mughal, and Khalid Khursheed, are also expected to be arrested.

Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, right, with his wife Bushra Bibi, center, arrive to appear in a court in Lahore, Pakistan, on June 26, 2023.
| Photo Credit: AP

A court in Pakistan on July 14 handed over jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to the country’s anti-corruption officials on an eight-day remand for probe in a fresh case of alleged corruption.

The former first couple was arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) soon after a district and sessions court on July 13 quashed their conviction in their un-Islamic marriage case.

The court’s short order also stated to release Khan and Bibi immediately unless they were wanted in other cases.

The NAB, which filed a new Toshakhana case against the couple, on July 14 presented them before Judge Muhammad Ali Warraich of the accountability court.

The judge conducted the hearing inside the Adiala Jail due to security reasons.

NAB Deputy Director Mohsin Haroon, who led the team to arrest them, requested their physical remand and the court, after hearing the lawyers, agreed to grant an eight-day remand.

The court then ordered to present the two on July 22.

The remand period can be extended to a maximum of 40 days at the request of NAB if it is needed to probe the suspects.

The new Toshakhana case is based on the accusation that the couple during Khan’s government purchased gifts from the state depository in violation of rules.

This is the third Toshakhana case and Khan’s sentence in the two previous Toshakhana cases had been suspended by the Islamabad High Court.

Last week, the Supreme Court in a key judgment declared that Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was eligible for the seats reserved for women and minorities in the National Assembly and four provincial assemblies.

The PTI will become the largest party in the National Assembly with 109 seats after the Supreme Court ruling.

Two successive victories for Khan were being interpreted as some kind of change of heart on the part of the powerful establishment towards the PTI and its founder, but the subsequent developments belie any such possibility.

Khan faces a slew of cases launched against him since his ouster from power in April 2022 after he fell out with the establishment which was believed to be instrumental in bringing him to power.

Chairman of Pakistan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party Gohar Khan, centre, celebrates with party supporters, after a court overturned the conviction and seven-year prison sentence of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife in Islamabad, Pakistan, on July 13, 2024.
| Photo Credit: AP

A Pakistani court on July 13 overturned the conviction and seven-year prison sentence of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife in the case of the couple’s alleged 2018 unlawful marriage case, removing the last known hurdle in the way of his release nearly a year after he was jailed, lawyers said.

Naeem Panjutha, one of Mr. Khan’s lawyers, said the court announced the verdict in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where the former Premier is being held.

The acquittal comes two weeks after another appeals court upheld the February 5 conviction and sentence of Mr. Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi.

The court in its brief order said if the couple is not wanted in any other case, they should be released.

Ms. Bibi is Mr. Khan’s third wife and a spiritual healer. She was previously married to a man who claimed that they divorced in November 2017, less than three months before she married Mr. Khan. Islamic law, as upheld by Pakistan, requires a three-month waiting period before a new marriage.

Ms. Bibi has said they divorced in August 2017 and the couple insisted during the trial that they did not violate the waiting period.

It was unclear how the government would respond to the court order. Authorities have registered multiple cases against Mr. Khan since 2022 when he was ousted from power through a vote of no-confidence in the Parliament.

The latest development came a day after Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that the party of Mr. Khan was improperly denied at least 20 seats in parliament, in a significant blow to the country’s fragile governing coalition.

Mr. Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party was previously excluded from a system that gives parties extra seats reserved for women and minorities in the National Assembly, or lower house of the Parliament. Though the verdict was a major political win for Mr. Khan, it would not put his party in a position to oust the government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who came into power following a February 8 election that Mr. Khan allies say was rigged.

Mr. Khan has been embroiled in more than 150 legal cases, including inciting violence, since his arrest in May 2023. During nationwide riots that followed that, Mr. Khan’s supporters attacked the military and government buildings in various parts of the country and torched a building housing state-run Radio Pakistan in the northwest.

The violence subsided only when Mr. Khan was released by the Supreme Court. Mr. Khan was again arrested in early August 2023 after a court handed him a three-year jail sentence for corruption.

Since then, Mr. Khan has been given bail by different courts in all the cases in which he has been convicted.

Pakistan former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.
| Photo Credit: AP

Pakistan’s jailed former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi was on Sunday implicated by the police in eight more cases in connection with the unprecedented mayhem on May 9 in 2023 following the arrest of ex-premier Imran Khan in a case of alleged corruption, according to a media report on Monday.

The 67-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader is currently imprisoned in Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail after his conviction in various cases.

On Sunday, a special police team approached the Anti-Terrorism Court in Lahore seeking permission to arrest, interrogate and summon Qureshi in an FIR registered with the Sarwar Road police station, Geo News reported.

However, the court denied the permission citing “security reasons”. Instead, the court allowed the investigation officer to visit Adiala Jail for interrogation of the former Foreign Minister within three days.

“The accused shall be deemed to be on physical remand for that purpose,” read the court order.

Riots were triggered almost across the country on May 9 last year after Khan’s arrest in the 190 million pounds settlement case. Hundreds of PTI workers and senior leaders were arrested for their involvement in violence and attacks on key military installations.

A special court established under the Official Secrets Act had handed Qureshi 10 years in jail in the cipher (secret diplomatic communication) case along with the jailed former premier Khan.

During the May 9 protests, the miscreants targeted the civil and military installations including — Jinnah House and the General Headquarters (GHQ) in Rawalpindi.

Terming the May 9 violence as “Black Day”, the military decided to try the protesters under the Army Act.

Reacting to the police implicating Qureshi in more cases, a spokesperson of the PTI said that the court had already granted bail to the former ruling party’s vice-chairman in these cases.

“Law was flouted again to keep Qureshi behind bars by making the court’s order ineffective practically,” he said.

The spokesperson said that Qureshi was being punished for firmly sticking with the ideology of the PTI founder. Lawlessness was reaching new highs in the country, he added.

Pakistan’s former PM Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Jailed ex-Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan’s party has submitted a resolution in the Senate calling for the release of the incarcerated leader, his wife Bushra, his close aide, Shah Mahmood Qureshi and other leaders, saying “political vendetta” has destroyed the country’s economy and reputation.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Mr. Khan, 71, and senior party leader and former Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, 67, have been lodged at the high-security Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi in various cases.

Submitted by party Senator Falak Naz Chitrali, the resolution calls for the release of the PTI party leaders, alleging that they were convicted under “false cases”, the Dawn newspaper reported.

“Political vendetta has destroyed the country’s economy and reputation,” the resolution read.

It also called for the release of PTI stalwart Dr. Yasmin Rashid, Mr. Khan’s wife Ms. Bushra Bibi and other women leaders of the party, as well as journalists.

The party submitted a similar resolution in the National Assembly on March 5.

Also Read | Shehbaz Sharif takes oath as Pakistan’s Prime Minister for a second time

Last month, Mr. Khan and his wife, Ms. Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to seven years imprisonment in an “un-Islamic” marriage or Iddat case.

In January, the PTI founding chairman and his wife were sentenced to 14 years imprisonment each for corruption on charges of illegally selling state gifts.

Earlier, the former-cricketer-turned-politician was also sentenced to 10 years in prison by a special court for leaking sensitive state secrets.

Mr. Khan and Mr. Qureshi were also handed down a jail term of 10 years in the cipher case.

The cipher case pertains to a piece of paper, purported to be a diplomatic cable — the cipher — that Mr. Khan had waved at a public rally on March 27, 2022, and naming the U.S., had claimed that it was ‘evidence’ of an “international conspiracy” to topple his government.

The Federal Investigation Agency filed the case against Mr. Khan and Mr. Qureshi on August 15 last year, which accused both of violating the secrecy laws while handling the cable sent by the Pakistan embassy in Washington in March 2022. Mr. Khan and Mr. Qureshi have also been barred from politics for five years.

Dozens of cases have been registered against Mr. Khan since his government was toppled through a no-trust vote in April 2022.

Police fire tear gas to disperse supporters of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan protesting against the arrest of their leader, in Peshawar, Pakistan, on May 9, 2023. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Pakistan’s Supreme Court on October 23 declared the trial of civilians arrested following the violent protests on May 9 in military courts as “null and void” and ordered authorities to conduct their hearing in ordinary courts.

A five-member bench of the Supreme Court led by Justice Ijazul Ahsan in its short verdict ordered that 102 accused arrested under the Army Act be tried in the criminal court.

The court, which announced its verdict within hours after it was reserved during the day at the conclusion of the hearing, ruled that the trial of any civilian if held in military court has been declared “null and void”.

Also Read: Probe finds ex-Pak PM Imran Khan and top party leadership involved in orchestrating May 9 violence

The bench comprising Justices Ahsan, Muneeb Akhtar, Yahya Afridi, Mazahir Naqvi, and Ayesha Malik announced its verdict on a dozen petitions challenging the trial of more than 100 civilians in military courts following the unprecedented violence in the country after the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan on May 9.

The pleas were filed by former Prime Minister Imran Khan, the Supreme Court Bar Association, eminent lawyer Aitzaz Ahsan, former Chief Justice Jawwad S Khawaja and members of the civil society among others.

The bench heard the pleas against the announcement by the government that those involved in attacks on military installations on May 9 would be tried under military laws.

According to the Pakistani Army, 102 accused have been handed over to the military authorities for trial.

They have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the attacks on key military establishments, including the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi, the Corps Commander’s House in Lahore, Pakistan Air Force Base Mianwali, and an office of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Faisalabad.

Also Read: Pakistan’s interim PM Kakar terms May 9 violence ‘attempted coup’

Attorney General Mansoor Awan at the outset of the hearing said that the military trials of civilians had formally commenced and all the requirements would be fulfilled in the process.

“All the requirements of a criminal case will be met in the trial under the Army Act,” he said.

The court, after hearing the arguments, had reserved its judgment earlier today.

The Supreme Court on October 20 announced that it will restart the hearing of the case after a gap of more than two months.

The last time a six-judge Supreme Court bench heard the case was on August 3 but a new bench was set up as the previous one was formed by the former Chief Justice Umar Ata Bandial. The previous bench had postponed further proceedings for an indefinite period.

Also Read: Pakistan military court should not begin trial of civilians involved in May 9 violence without informing Supreme Court, says top judge

The government during the hearing had assured the court that their trial had not started as yet.

The case is deemed an important one as it will settle the issue of the trial of civilians by the military courts.

Meanwhile, at least nine accused facing trials under the Army Act moved the apex court on October 22 for early conclusion of their cases by the military courts.

In their separate applications, the suspects pleaded that they have complete faith and confidence in the military authorities to provide justice to them and to other accused persons.