(CNN) — Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to seven years in prison and a fine by a district court that ruled that their 2018 marriage violated the law.
This is the third sentence for Khan and the second for his wife this week. A brief court order obtained by CNN said that both defendants were convicted of a crime under Section 496 of the Pakistan Penal Code, which is “performing a marriage ceremony without a legal marriage ceremony.”
Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband, Khawar Fareed Manka, had filed a case against Khan and Bibi nearly six years after his divorce, accusing them of marrying without completing the waiting period – the obligatory waiting period in Islam after divorce – and committing adultery.
The conviction was issued by a local court in Adiala Prison in Rawalpindi, where Imran Khan is currently imprisoned, and the judicial proceedings were held in the prison for security reasons.
Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, issued a statement condemning the court ruling, calling it a “mockery of the law.”
Party spokesman Syed Zulfikar Bukhari told reporters that he had witnessed the wedding in 2018 and described the ruling as “a victory for Imran Khan. Because it shows that all the other charges against him are also wrong in light of such ridiculous cases and sentences being brought against him.”
The ruling comes ahead of Pakistan’s general elections on Thursday, in which Imran Khan was banned from participating.
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2024-02-03 13:44:54
