https://arab.news/vvrwe
- Khan and Bushra are accused of misusing power to acquire gifts from state repository when Khan was PM from 2018-22
- Arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician, Khan says all cases against him are motivated to keep him out of politics
ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court on Monday rejected the bail pleas of former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Khan in a case in which they are accused of misusing power to acquire gifts from a state repository when Khan was premier from 2018-22.
Khan was convicted in four cases after being arrested in August last year. Two of the verdicts have since been suspended and he was acquitted in the remaining two. However, the National Accountability Bureau earlier this year filed what has come to be popularly called the new Toshakhana reference involving a jewelry set worth over €380,000 that was gifted to the former first lady by a foreign dignitary and which the couple are accused of undervaluing and buying at a lesser price from the state repository.
Khan and Bushra, who deny wrongdoing, are set to be indicted in the case on Oct. 2.
“A court on Monday rejected the bail pleas filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party founder Imran Khan and his wife and former first lady Bushra Bibi in the new Toshakhana case where they face allegations of misusing power to acquire state gifts,” Pakistan’s top news channel, Geo News, reported.
All major media outlets also reported the development.
Khan and Bushra, already in prison at the time, were re-arrested on July 13 shortly after a district and sessions court ordered their immediate release after accepting their appeals against a ruling that they had violated the country’s marriage law.
The couple were sentenced to seven years in prison and fined in February by a court that ruled their 2018 marriage broke the law. Bushra was accused of not completing the waiting period mandated by Islam, called “Iddat,” after divorcing her previous husband and marrying Khan.
At that point, two of Khan’s convictions had been suspended by the court and he had been acquitted in the third one so the Iddat case was the only one keeping him in prison.
However, hours after the local court’s verdict in their favor, the new Toshakhana case was filed by NAB and the former prime minister and his wife were arrested, ruling out the possibility of them walking out of jail.
Khan’s convictions had already ruled the 71-year-old out of Feb. 8 general elections as convicted felons cannot run for public office under Pakistani law. Arguably Pakistan’s most popular politician, Khan says all cases against him are motivated to keep him out of politics.