Wife of Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan released from jail

Bushra Bibi, the wife of Pakistan’s ex-prime minister Imran Khan, was released from jail on Thursday, his party said, nine months after she was imprisoned alongside him in the runup to elections.

In the days before the February polls, Bibi was convicted of graft and illegal marriage alongside opposition leader Khan in what he claimed was a campaign to sideline him from the vote.

The illegal marriage case collapsed on appeal and Bibi’s graft sentence was suspended, allowing her to walk free from Adiala Jail, where Khan remains imprisoned.

Bibi was bailed on a separate pending case on Wednesday.

The chairman of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, Gohar Ali Khan, said that after her release, Bibi was travelling to her Islamabad residence.

“She was kept in jail to put pressure on Imran Khan,” he told reporters. “I extend my heartfelt congratulations to all PTI supporters on the release of Bushra Bibi, and we offer our gratitude to God.”

PUNCH Online reported in January 2024 that Khan was sentenced to 14 years in jail on a graft charge, a day after he was given a 10-year prison term in verdicts handed down just a week before national elections.

Khan and his wife were found guilty of graft in a case involving gifts he received while premier after he was handed 10 years in a case related to leaking state secrets.

The pair married in 2018, months before Khan was elected prime minister.

Meanwhile, in June 2024, a Pakistan high court overturned the treason conviction against Khan, who remains in jail on other charges.

The conviction was one of three slapped on Khan in the runup to the February elections, which he claims were orchestrated to prevent his return to power.

The decision by a two-member bench at Islamabad High Court was announced by Chief Justice Aamer Farooq, an AFP court reporter stated.

“This is the first big case that was part of the political victimisation against Imran Khan and Shah Mahmood Qureshi, which has been dashed to the ground,” Salman Safdar, a lawyer for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, told AFP outside of court.

AFP