Imran Khan, Bushra challenge their conviction in Al-Qadir Trust case in IHC
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Former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi on Monday filed appeals in the Islamabad High Court (IHC) against their conviction in the 190 million Pound case (Al-Qadir Trust case), reported 24NewsHD TV channel.
In their appeals, Imran and Bushra said that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) misused its powers, and the trial court handed them prison terms in a rush, on the basis of an incomplete investigation.
They said the fact that neither the text of the agreement signed with the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) was obtained nor the Agency officials were asked to cooperate with the investigators proved their point that the probe was incomplete. “The prosecution also failed to present proof against both of us,” Imran and Bushra said.
The couple prayed to the court to declare the trial court’s verdict dated January 17, 2025 null and void and order their acquittal.
Imran Khan, 72, has been held in custody since August 2023 charged in around 200 cases that he claims are politically motivated.
The former cricketing star was sentenced to 14 years in jail and his wife to seven years this month in the latest case.
"We have filed appeals today and in the next few days it will go through clerical processes and then it will be fixed for a hearing," Imran Khan's lawyer Khalid Yousaf Chaudhry told AFP outside Islamabad High Court.
Imran Khan has been convicted four times since his arrest, with two convictions overturned and the sentences in the other two cases suspended.
An accountability court found the pair guilty of "corruption and corrupt practices" over a welfare foundation they established together called the Al-Qadir Trust.
The court hearing for the case was postponed three times and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) said earlier it was being used to pressure him into cutting a deal with the government to step back from politics.
Imran Khan alleged before the conviction that he had been "indirectly approached" about the possibility of house arrest at his sprawling home on Islamabad's outskirts.
Bushra Bibi, a faith healer who married Khan shortly before he was elected in 2018, is being held at the same jail as her husband in Rawalpindi.
Reporter: Ihtesham Kiani