Pakistani court reserves verdict on petitions seeking suspension of Imran Khan and his wife’s sentence in ‘iddat’ case

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani district court on Tuesday reserved judgment on the plea by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi to suspend their sentences in the ‘iddat’ case, a judgment that was widely criticised by civil society and women activists.

Khan, 71, and Bushra, 49, were sentenced to seven years in prison each on February 3 by a trial court for contracting their marriage during ‘iddat’, a mandatory period for a woman in Islam to wait before a second marriage after the death of her husband or divorce.

Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Afzal Majoka of the Islamabad District and Sessions Court conducted the hearing and reserved the verdict on the conclusion of the process. He announced the verdict would be issued on the afternoon of June 27.

Earlier, the couple had challenged the conviction before district and sessions judge Shahrukh Arjumand, who recused himself at a time when the hearing had been concluded and the court was supposed to announce the verdict.

The case was last week transferred to ADSJ Majoka and the Islamabad High Court ordered the sessions court to decide in 10 days.

The judgment was widely criticised by civil society and women activists for being a “blow to women’s right to dignity and privacy”. There were protests by activists in Islamabad against the verdict and a demonstration in Karachi against the “state’s intrusion into people’s private lives” had also denounced it, the Dawn reported.

The case was filed by Bibi’s ex-husband Khawar Maneka against the couple in November 2023, alleging that they married without Bibi observing the mandatory waiting period of ‘iddat’. He asked the court to declare the marriage null and void.

Khan and Bibi married in 2018, the year Khan went on to win elections and become prime minister.

Bibi was ostensibly his spiritual guide but the two developed affection for each other during their meetings. She got divorce from her husband of 28 years with whom she had five children.

She is the third wife of Khan, a former cricketing hero, who during his heydays of sporting career had a playboy reputation.

On Monday, the 71-year-old cricketer-turned-politician moved the Supreme Court, seeking an expedited hearing of his appeal against his disqualification by the election commission in the Toshakhana corruption case.

In December last year, the PTI founder challenged in the Lahore High Court the Election Commission of Pakistan’s ruling of disqualifying him for five years for not declaring Toshakhana gifts in his statement of assets and liabilities.

Khan, a cricketer-turned-politician has been in jail since August last year after being convicted in some of the nearly 200 cases slapped on him since his ouster from power in April 2022.