A Pakistani court docket on Saturday sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse, Bushra Bibi, to seven years in jail for violating a wedding legislation after they wed in 2018, officers and a lawyer for the couple mentioned.
The prosecution asserted Khan and his spouse violated Islamic legislation, which says {that a} lady should wait three months earlier than re-marrying. This is named the ‘Iddah’ interval and is a requirement underneath Islamic household legislation upheld by Pakistan. The previous First Partner was beforehand married, and her ex-husband Khawar Maneka claimed they divorced in November 2017, lower than three months earlier than Bibi married Khan in January 2018. Bibi, nevertheless, has mentioned they divorced in August 2017. Each Khan and Bibi have denied they violated the legislation, calling the fees “baseless” and “politically motivated,” forward of the February 8 parliamentary elections in Pakistan, from which Khan has already been disqualified owing to authorized convictions.
The decision was introduced by Choose Qudrat Ullah a day after the trial was concluded. The trial occurred on the Adiala jail, the place Khan is at present incarcerated on unrelated expenses. Moreover, the couple have been each fined 500,000 Rupees (roughly $1,800) every.
The decision, as learn in court docket, asserted that the complainant “has been in a position to show that the respondents have gone by an illegal wedding ceremony…with dishonest and fraudulent intention.”
The ruling is the newest in a sequence of authorized instances the previous prime minister is embroiled in. Earlier this week, Khan and his spouse have been sentenced to 14 years in jail on expenses of corruption. The day before, Khan was sentenced to 10 years for revealing state secrets and techniques.
Khan is allegedly the goal of greater than 150 authorized instances, with expenses starting from inciting violence for the nationwide riots sparked by his arrest in Could 2023, to further allegations of corruption.
The previous prime minister has insisted that the quite a few instances in opposition to him are politically motivated and half of a bigger smear marketing campaign orchestrated by the South-Asian nation’s incumbent army management and the US to punish him for advocating for Pakistani overseas coverage free from American affect. Each the US and Pakistan have rejected these claims.
Khan wrote to his followers on X (previously Twitter), saying:
The iddat case has been expedited solely as a result of they need to create a story in opposition to my dream of building Pakistan on the ideas of Riasat-e Madinah. Subsequently, they’re concluding it in haste with out an iota of equity within the trial simply to announce me responsible…Pakistanis, you could know that each one of those instances don’t have any authorized foundation; they’re a part of an ongoing political circus within the nation for the previous 22 months. The hasty method through which all these instances are being concluded is for just one function which is the demoralise the voters, particularly the youth.
The decision Saturday marks Khan’s fourth conviction in underneath two years for the reason that former prime minister was ousted from energy in 2022. At present, his sentences complete 34 years, and he’s anticipated to serve these concurrently.
