Islamabad, Feb 3 (EFE).- A court in Pakistan on Saturday sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to seven years in prison for unlawful marriage, the third sentence against the opposition leader this week and only days before general elections in the country.
Electoral posters of jailed former Prime Minister Imran Khan are displayed on a container in Islamabad, Pakistan, 30 January 2024. EFE-EPA/SOHAIL SHAHZAD
“After hours of rushed hearings at court, no cross examination of witnesses, and no due process – a mockery of the law,” a spokesperson for Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari said with regard to the verdict.
Bibi’s ex-husband, Khawar Maneka, had filed a complaint against her and Khan in court in November accusing them of fraudulent marriage.
According to Maneka, Bibi did not respect the mandatory time period that a woman must observe after the dissolution of her marriage or after the death of her husband, according to Islamic law.
This is the third conviction in a week against the 71-year-old former cricket star, in what the PTI has denounced as political persecution to keep him out of the general elections on Feb. 8.
“With the way these trials are being conducted, there will be a huge question mark on the February 8th elections. This is a test case for Pakistan’s higher judiciary,” Bukhari said.
Imprisoned since August 2022 and with a string of legal cases against him, Khan was sentenced along with Bibi on Wednesday to 14 years in prison for not declaring the money obtained from the sale of gifts he received during his mandate.
A day earlier, Khan and one of his main collaborators, former foreign minister Mahmood Qureshi, were each handed a 10-year sentence by a special court for revealing private conversations, considered state secrets.
Khan was removed as prime minister through a no-confidence vote in April 2022, and has blamed the powerful Pakistani military for being behind his fall from power.
Despite being behind bars and unable to participate in the general elections, the former cricket star remains one of the most popular politicians in the country.
The PTI is one of the main parties in the fray in the upcoming elections along with the Pakistan Muslim League–Nawaz (PML-N) of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, who in recent months returned from self-imposed exile and whose convictions have been overturned by courts, thereby allowing him to return to politics. EFE
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