No legal action for ex-PM Imran Khan, wife in ‘un-Islamic’ marriage case: report

Islamabad:

A district and sessions court in Islamabad turned down pleas by former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan as well as his wife Bushra Bibi to suspend their seven-year sentences in the Iddat Case on Thursday, Dawn reported.

The verdict, which had been reserved on Tuesday, was announced today by Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Afzal Majoka.

Lawyers, women activists and members of civil society harshly condemned Iddat’s conviction as a “blow to women’s right to dignity and privacy”.

The decision was met with protests in Islamabad by activists and criticism in Karachi by protesters who were against “the state’s intrusion into people’s private lives”.

Ahead of the general elections on February 3, an Islamabad court sentenced the couple to seven years in prison and fined each of them PKR 500,000 for getting married during Bushra Bibi’s Iddat period.

The couple were sentenced to 14 years in prison in the Toshakhana case, while Imran and his foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi, were sentenced to 10 years in prison in the Cypher case, the same week the verdict was delivered.

Imran and Qureshi were found not guilty in the Cypher case earlier this month, and the sentences in the Toshakhana case were suspended in April.

The case was earlier being heard by district and sessions judge Shahrukh Arjumand, who reserved the verdict in May.

On the day of the advance announcement, he requested the transfer of the matter, citing Maneka’s appeal to be removed from the appeals panel. The case was then transferred to ADSJ Majoka.

However, Bushra Bibi’s lawyer filed a petition with the Islamabad High Court for her release on bail and suspended sentence. In a related development, the sessions court was directed by the Islamabad High Court to decide on the appeals of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and his wife within ten days.

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