Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan, wife sentenced to prison in corruption case | Imran Khan news

Islamabad, Pakistan – Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was sentenced Friday to 14 years in prison and his wife Bushra Bibi to seven years in a case related to abuse of power and corruption involving Khan’s Al-Qadir University Project Fund.

Khan was also fined one million Pakistani rupees ($3,500), while Bibi was fined half that amount.

The accountability court operating out of Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, where Khan has been incarcerated since then August 2023he deferred his judgment last December and postponed the publication three times. Bibi was arrested from the court premises.

Khan, who did not appear in court on January 13 when the decision was adjourned for the third time, had earlier claimed that the adjournments were an attempt to “pressure” him.

This is the fourth major case in which the former prime minister has been convicted.

Three previous convictions, announced in January last year, related to sale of state gifts, disclosure of state secretsand illegal marriagewho all were upset or suspended. Despite this, Khan remains behind bars, with dozens of cases pending against him – a situation he describes as a political witch hunt.

Khan was first arrested in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust case in May 2023, spent less than two days in detention. However, the arrest led to protests across the country during which the Khan’s supporters revolted in several cities.

Faisal Fareed Chaudhry, Khan’s lawyer, condemned the decision as a continuation of the “false persecution” against Khan and his wife.

“It is perhaps the only case where the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) could not establish the loss of even a single penny,” the lawyer told Al Jazeera.

Chaudhry added that NAB had failed to provide evidence of any financial loss to the state or any link between the Al-Qadir Trust and personal financial gain for Khan or his family.

“The criminal case against Khan and Bushra Bibi was not proved during the prosecution. The whole case is politically motivated. I do not understand how the establishment of a trust constitutes a conflict of interest,” said the lawyer.

The indictment accused Khan and his wife of acquiring land worth billions of rupees (millions of US dollars) for Al-Qadir Trust from Malik Riaz, a prominent real estate tycoon in Pakistan, to establish a non-profit educational institution for the poor.

NAB alleged that Khan, as prime minister from August 2018 to April 2022, entered into a quid pro quo deal with Riaz, enabling him to launder more than $239 million. This allegedly caused significant losses to the state treasury.

According to NAB, Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf (PTI) government gave legal cover to Riaz’s black money, which was found by the UK’s National Crime Agency and handed over to the Pakistan government.

Khan was ousted from power in April 2022 in a parliamentary no-confidence vote, which he attributed to a conspiracy involving the country’s military and the United States, both of which have denied the allegations.

Pakistan’s military wielded considerable political influence, directly ruling the nation for nearly three decades since its formation in 1947, and was once seen as Khan’s benefactor and architect of his rise to power, before the two fell out. Although no prime minister in Pakistan’s history has completed his term, three of the four military dictators have ruled for nearly a decade each.

The convictions of Khan and his wife coincide with ongoing negotiations between the PTI and the current government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on several issues, including Khan’s release.

Islamabad-based lawyer Hafiz Ahsaan Khokhar said the case involved an exhaustive process, with at least 100 hearings in the past year.

“The key issue is money laundering, and the provisions of the NAB are explicit about dishonesty and abuse of power by public office holders. Additionally, both the Supreme Court and the federal cabinet were misled and government money was illegally diverted for personal gain,” Khokhar told Al Jazeera.

Political analyst Majid Nizami said the Al-Qadir Trust case stood out among the dozens against Khan because of the extensive documentation and time it took to prosecute.

“This case took the longest, with thousands of pages of evidence presented. There were certainly irregularities that required investigation,” Nizami told Al Jazeera.

However, the analyst also highlighted the long history of political victimization in Pakistan. “Instead of focusing on justice, our history shows that we tend to focus on revenge. In this case too, the discourse will revolve around political victimization and not about the merits or demerits of the case,” he added.

Since three rounds of talks have already taken place between the government and the PTI, Nizami fears that the conviction could derail the talks.

“When the talks began, it was agreed that the dialogue would continue regardless of the verdict, but a conviction could put a strain on these efforts,” warned Nizami from Lahore.

He suggested that internal divisions within the PTI could erupt again, with factions supporting the resistance likely to prevail over those advocating patience and dialogue.

“This could once again lead to a more aggressive stance by the PTI in the future,” he said.