Islamabad: In a major setback for Imran Khan, a Pakistan court on Thursday rejected the pleas submitted by the imprisoned former PM and his wife Bushra Bibi to suspend their seven-year sentence in the illegal marriage case. The couple were sentenced to seven years by a trial court in Rawalpindi's Adiala Jail after hearing the plea of Bushra Bibi's former husband Khawar Fareed Maneka.
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. Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi were also slapped with a fine of Rs 500,000 in the illegal marriage case.
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.
According to Dawn, 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.
'Absolutely ridiculous': PTI to challenge verdict
Previously, the judge in the Islamabad district and sessions court was hearing the case and had reserved the verdict in May. Last week, Maneka’s counsel had repeatedly sought an adjournment in the proceedings but judge Majoka ordered him to conclude his arguments by June 25. The Islamabad High Court (IHC) had ordered the court to take up the main appeals against Imran and Bushra Bibi's convictions.
A petition filed by Bushra Bibi’s counsel seeking her release on bail and suspension is also pending before the IHC, with notices issued to the complainant and prosecution. However, the court found Imran and Bushra Bibi guilty under Section 496 of Pakistan's Penal Code, which pertains to marriage ceremony fraudulently gone through without lawful marriage.
The order further said that the two would be imprisoned for a further four months if they failed to pay the fines. As per Pakistan’s superior courts, formalising marriage during the iddat period does not entail marriage annulment as that requires a separate declaration; it will be treated as irregular but not void, in terms of legal fiction.
Reacting to the verdict, Imran's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) termed the decision "absolutely ridiculous" and pledged to challenge the verdict in the IHC. "We will challenge this verdict in the high court at once," the National Assembly opposition leader said while lamenting the politicisation and weaponisation of private matters between a husband and a wife, Geo News reported.
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