On February 3, simply days earlier than the overall elections on February 8, an Islamabad court docket had convicted the couple primarily based on a grievance filed by Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband, Khawar Fareed Maneka.Maneka alleged that they’d contracted marriage throughout Bushra Bibi’s Iddat interval, a compulsory ready interval in Islam that lasts 4 months after a girl’s divorce or the dying of her husband.
The couple challenged the sentence in a district and session court docket in Islamabad, the place Further District and Periods Decide (ADSJ) Afzal Majoka heard the case. Decide Majoka introduced the judgment within the afternoon after reserving the decision earlier within the day, acquitting Khan, 71, and Bushra, 49.
“If they aren’t needed in another case, then PTI founder Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi needs to be launched [from jail] instantly,” the decide stated after accepting their appeals. Nevertheless, it was not instantly clear if Khan can be launched, as this was the one case for which he was at present imprisoned following the suspension of his Toshakhana corruption case sentence and acquittal within the cipher case.
Imran Khan, the cricketer-turned-politician, has been behind bars since August final yr after being sentenced within the Toshakhana corruption case and subsequently convicted in different circumstances forward of the February 8 elections.
Maneka filed the case towards the couple in November 2023, alleging that they married with out observing the obligatory Iddat interval. He sought to have the wedding declared null and void.
Khan and Bibi married in 2018, the identical yr Khan gained the overall elections and have become prime minister. Bibi, who was ostensibly Khan’s non secular information, divorced her husband of 28 years, with whom she had 5 kids, and developed a romantic relationship with Khan. She is Khan’s third spouse; throughout his cricketing profession, Khan had a fame as a playboy.
PTI chief Gohar Khan welcomed the decision, calling it a victory for the unbiased judiciary. “All these circumstances have been pretend, and he may also get justice in all different circumstances,” he stated, demanding Imran Khan’s rapid launch as this was the final case by which he was convicted.
This judgment follows a serious authorized victory for Khan’s PTI occasion. On Friday, the Supreme Court docket declared the PTI eligible for reserved seats in Parliament and provincial assemblies following the controversy-ridden normal election on February 8. The court docket dominated that the PTI was entitled to greater than 20 seats reserved for girls and minorities in Parliament.