Pakistan releases wife of former Premier Imran Khan on bail

The Pakistani authorities released Bushra Bibi from prison on Thursday, a day after a court in Islamabad granted the wife of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan bail in a case involving the purchase and illegal sale of state gifts, Anadolu has reported.

“Bushra Bibi has been released from Adiala Jail [in Rawalpindi],” Sardar Muhammad Masroof Khan, former assistant attorney general and lawyer for Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, told the media in Islamabad.

Justice Miangul Hassan Aurangzeb of the Islamabad High Court granted the former first lady post-arrest bail yesterday and ordered her release. The former first lady was arrested in late January after an Islamabad accountability court sentenced her and Khan to 14 years in prison in a case involving the purchase and illegal sale of state gifts received by the couple from foreign countries during Khan’s nearly four-year tenure as prime minister. In addition, the two were sentenced to seven years in prison for violating the Islamic code during their marriage in 2018.

In April, the court suspended their sentences in the foreign gifts case but they remain in custody in several other cases. In July, a local court also suspended sentences and acquitted Khan and his wife of violating Islamic marriage law.

Khan, 72, however, remains jailed in Rawalpindi and seeking bail on multiple cases ranging from corruption to terrorism, all of which he denies. Courts have already set aside two of his convictions and suspended the third one. The former cricket star was ousted from power through a no-confidence vote in April 2022.

READ: Pakistan dispatches aid to Lebanon amid Israel attacks