The Islamabad Bench of Pakistan’s National Accountability Bureau Court on Friday sentenced former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to imprisonment for 14 and seven years, respectively, in a £190 million corruption case. The court earlier delayed the verdict amidst ongoing negotiations between Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-I-Insaaf (PTI) party and the ruling coalition government of Pakistan.
Khan was sentenced to 14 years in prison and fined PKR$ 1 million, while Bibi received a seven-year sentence and a PKR$ 500,000 fine. The couple faces additional imprisonment if fines are not paid. Additionally, the court ordered the forfeiture of Al-Qadir University Project Trust property to the federal government and handed the convicts over to jail authorities.
Imran Khan, in his message from the Adiala jail, rejecting the Al-Qadir Trust case verdict as politically motivated and pre-determined, vowed to continue his fight for democracy, freedom, and the rule of law without compromise. He criticized the judiciary for bias, alleging judges were rewarded for rulings against him, and contrasted his integrity with another former prime minister Nawaz Sharif’s alleged corruption.
Furthermore, defending Al-Qadir University as a charitable institution, he insisted neither he nor Bushra Bibi financially benefited and condemned the government for targeting his wife to pressure him. He also decried the lack of progress in negotiations for a judicial commission to investigate political events, accusing the government of dishonesty and undermining accountability.
The £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case involves allegations of corruption and abuse of power by Khan, businessman Malik Riaz, and others. In 2019, Malik Riaz’s £190 million in assets, seized by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA), were returned to Pakistan after Khan’s government approved a confidential agreement with the NCA. The Al-Qadir Trust, established thereafter, allegedly received land from Riaz to create an educational institution, with accusations of illegally benefiting from manipulated funds.
Khan remains in prison due to conviction in multiple cases including the “cypher“ case, which involved “use of official secret information and illegal retention of a cypher telegram with mala fide intention,” and a marriage law violation case alleging Khan and his wife violated Islamic law, which says that a woman must wait three months before re-marrying.
