Islamabad court upholds Imran, Bushra Bibi’s sentences in Iddat case

An Islamabad district and sessions court on Thursday turned down the pleas of ex-premier Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to suspend their seven-year sentences in the Iddat case.

Additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) Afzal Majoka announced the verdict today, which had been reserved on Tuesday.

On February 3 — days before the general elections — an Islamabad court, while hearing the plea of Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband Khawar Fareed Maneka, had sentenced the couple to seven years in jail and imposed Rs500,000 fine each for contracting marriage during Bushra Bibi’s Iddat period.

The verdict had come in the same week the couple had been handed 14-year sentences in the Toshakhana case, and Imran and his foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had received a 10-year sentence in the cipher case.

The Toshakhana case sentences had been suspended in April while earlier this month, Imran and Qureshi had also been acquitted in the cipher case.

The Iddat conviction was widely criticised by civil society, women activists and lawyers for being a “blow to women’s right to dignity and privacy”. Activists had protested in Islamabad against the verdict while a Karachi demonstration against the “state’s intrusion into people’s private lives” had also denounced it.

Previously, District and Sessions Judge Shahrukh Arjumand was hearing the case and had reserved the verdict in May.

However, on the day of its expected announcement, he sought transfer of the case, citing Maneka’s request for recusal from hearing the appeals.

Subsequently, the case was transferred to ADSJ Majoka. However, the counsel for Bushra Bibi had filed a petition before the IHC seeking her release on bail and suspension of her sentence.

Separately, the Islamabad High Court had ordered the sessions court to decide in 10 days on pleas by PTI founder and his wife.

More to follow

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