Bushra Bibi, the spouse of former prime minister Imran Khan, has filed a petition in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), seeking the suspension of her conviction and sentencing in a case related to contracting marriage with Imran without observing the mandatory waiting—iddat—period.
A judicial magistrate, Qudratullah, on February 3 sentenced Imran and Bushra to seven years in prison each while hearing a complaint filed by Bushra’s former husband Khawar Maneka almost six years after the PTI founder’s January 2018 marriage with his ex-wife.
The couple later filed appeals against the trial court’s order in a district and sessions court in Islamabad. However, when the court was about to deliver its verdict on the appeals, Khawar Maneka expressed his lack of trust in the judge, Shahrukh Arjumand.
Judge Arjumand subsequently referred the case for transfer to another court, and the IHC listed it for hearing in the court of Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majuka.
In her petition, filed through Salman Safdar Advocate, Bushra Bibi sought suspension of her sentence. The petition argued that the prosecution presented weak and contradictory evidence in the trial court, which could not form the basis for a conviction. It asserted that the trial court’s sentence cannot be upheld.
According to the petition, Bushra Bibi is being kept in dire conditions in jail as part of political vendetta. To ensure justice, it is necessary to suspend the trial court’s February 3 sentence and order her release on bail.
The IHC Registrar's Office has raised three objections to Bushra Bibi's petition. It asks how the petition can be filed in the IHC while the suspension of the sentence is still pending in the sessions court. "Which order of the lower court is being challenged? And how can similar relief be sought from two courts simultaneously?" it adds.
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