Islamabad, Pakistan – Imran Khan, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister, and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to 14 years in prison in a case involving the illicit sale of state goods.
An accountability court in Rawalpindi, which deals with corruption matters, decided on Wednesday that the pair would be unable to run for public office for ten years and imposed a sentence of 757 million rupees ($2.7 million).
Khan was sentenced to ten years in jail for exposing national secrets the day before. It was unclear whether the penalties should run consecutively or concurrently.
Khan was sentenced to three years in jail in August for selling gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) that he obtained while serving as Prime Minister from 2018 to April 2022.
Despite receiving bail, Khan remained in jail awaiting trial in other instances.
The convictions of probably Pakistan’s most popular politician occurred roughly a week before the general elections on February 8.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has already been deprived of its electoral emblem, with the majority of its candidates running as independents.
Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari, a PTI spokesman, described Khan’s punishment as “yet another sad day in Pakistan’s judicial history” and questioned its legality.
“The judiciary is being decimated. “A flawed decision meant to be suspended by the higher court, as witnesses clearly appeared compromised,” he said.
“Star witnesses have changed.” There is no cross-questioning, no final debate, and the judgment is presented as if it were a planned procedure. This ludicrous ruling will be appealed in the higher courts.
Maria Ghanchi