Islamabad: In a major development, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is legally a free man after he was acquitted in an illegal marriage case on Saturday. This was the last existing case that kept the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder behind bars after spending almost a year in prison.
An Islamabad court on Saturday accepted the appeals filed by the former PM and his wife Bushra Bibi against their conviction in the case, clearing the last existing legal case that kept Imran behind bars. The couple were sentenced to seven years by a trial court on February 3 - days before the general elections - in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail after hearing the plea of Bushra Bibi's former husband Khawar Fareed Maneka.
Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi were also slapped with a fine of Rs 500,000 in the illegal marriage case. The sentence had come on the same day after Imran Khan and his wife were sentenced to 14 years of rigorous imprisonment in the Toshakhana corruption case, which has now been suspended. This came a day after Imran and his deputy Shah Mahmood Qureshi was handed a 10-year sentence in the cipher case for allegedly leaking state secrets, in which both have been acquitted.
"If they are not wanted in any other case, then PTI founder Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi should be released [from jail] immediately," Dawn cited the judge as saying, although it was not clear whether Imran would be released from prison. The judge also dismissed both applications by Maneka to carry out Bushra Bibi's medical checkup and further deliberation on the 'iddat' period.
'A victory for country, independent judiciary'
Following the verdict, PTI chairman Gohar Khan told the media that the purpose of the conviction was to force Imran to compromise but "Imran has stood steady as a rock". "The win today is the country’s win and is a win for the independent judiciary. The world has now seen that this was merely a case made for political victimisation," he added.
The cricketer-turned-politician has been behind bars since August last year after he was sentenced in the Toshakhana corruption case and subsequently sentenced in other cases ahead of the February 8 elections. The verdict came a day after Imran's PTI won a huge legal battle when the Supreme Court deemed it eligible for reserved seats in the Parliament, effectively making it the largest party in the National Assembly.
What is the case about?
The case pertains to Maneka seeking legal action against former PM Imran for marrying his ex-wife Bushra Bibi while she was on her 'iddat' period. The iddat period (three months) is a waiting period that a Muslim woman must observe on account of the death of her husband or the dissolution of the marriage. Maneka, in his petition, had termed Bushra and Khan’s nikkah “fraudulent” contending that the marriage was solemnised during her iddat — following her divorce from him.
Bushra Bibi's ex-husband also accused the former PM of ruining his entire life while "stigmatising the complainant and his family just to achieve his unethical and immoral objects through intrusion in the complainant's peaceful marital life”. Bibi, 49, hails from a family of landowners in Punjab. Her first marriage, which lasted about 30 years, was to Maneka, who is from a politically influential Punjab family.
The case was widely criticised by civil society in Pakistan, along with 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.
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