Court accepts plea against Imran’s marriage

ISLAMABAD:

Maintaining the admissibility of a petition, a district court in Islamabad on Tuesday summoned PTI Chairman Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi on July 20 over their nikkah allegedly not in compliance with Shariah.

District and Sessions Court Islamabad Judicial Magistrate Qudratullah issued a nine-page detailed judgment that the “illegal” marriage case against the deposed premier was admissible.

On Friday, Additional District and Sessions Judge Islamabad Muhammad Azam Khan had remanded the case to a civil judge.

He had also dismissed another civil court’s verdict declaring the plea challenging the legality of the marriage inadmissible.

Judge Azam, in his order, wrote that the petitioner stated that the civil court in Islamabad had dismissed his case on the basis of jurisdiction but it could be heard in the federal capital as well as Lahore as the nikkah was held in the provincial capital of Punjab and the PTI chairman stayed with Bushra at his Bani Gala residence after the marriage.

Judicial Magistrate Qudratullah’s verdict read that the petitioner had maintained that Bushra married Imran during her period of Iddat.

Iddat is the period that a woman must observe after the death of her husband or after a divorce, during which she must not marry another man.

The judgment noted that according to the statement of nikkah khawan Mufti Saeed, he had solemnised the marriage of the PTI chairman and Bushra twice -- first on January 1, 2018 and the second time in February 2018.

Saeed said he had solemnised Imran’s nikkah with Bushra on January 1, 2018, over the assurance of a woman, who claimed to be the former first lady’s sister.

After the marriage in January, it was reported that Bushra was in a period of Iddat.

The nikkah khawan was informed about Bushra’s Iddat period in the presence of Imran’s former close aide, Awn Chaudry.

Saeed quoted Imran as saying that Bushra was divorced in November 2017, adding that there was a "prediction" that the PTI chief would become the prime minister of the country if he married her.

According to the petitioner, the first marriage took place in Lahore while the second one in Islamabad.

The judgment read that after the first marriage, Imran and Bushra had started living together at the former’s residence in Bani Gala.

According to the counsel for the petitioner, marriage during iddat was a crime.

He added that the PTI chief and Bushra were living together after an “illegal” marriage.

The court judgment stated that the matter fell within the jurisdiction of an Islamabad court as Bani Gala was within the limits of the federal capital.