Bushra Bibi, the wife of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, was brought to a prison in the Pakistani city of Rawalpindi on Friday for a hearing in a land graft case, with the ex-premier’s party saying indictment would take place on Feb. 27.
Bushra has been living under house arrest at her husband’s sprawling Bani Gala mansion, declared a sub-jail, in Islamabad since Jan. 31 when both were sentenced to 14 years in prison in a case that relates to accusations they undervalued gifts from a state repository and gained profits from selling them while Khan was prime minister from 2018-22.
Earlier this month, Khan and his wife are also sentenced to seven years on charges they violated the country’s marriage law when they wed in 2018 – the fourth sentence so far for Khan and the second for his wife. “Former first lady Bushra Bibi has been brought to Adiala Prison from Bani Gala sub prison for 190 million case trial,” the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said in a message to reporters, referring to the Al Qadir Trust case. While the party said on Friday morning that indictment was “very much on the cards today,” it told media in the afternoon that it would take place on Feb. 27.
The former premier and his wife are accused in the case of receiving land as a bribe through the Al Qadir charitable trust set up in 2018 when Khan was still in office. Pakistani authorities have accused Khan and his wife of receiving the land, worth up to 7 billion rupees ($25 million), from a property developer charged in Britain with money laundering. The bribe, authorities say, was in exchange for a favor to the property developer by using 190 million pounds repatriated by Britain in the money laundering probe to pay fines levied by a court against the developer. Khan’s aides say the land was donated to the trust for charitable purposes. The real estate developer has also denied any wrongdoing.
