Islamabad. A Pakistani court has acquitted former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife of charges of illegal marriage. Earlier in February, a few days before Pakistan’s elections, the court had sentenced Imran Khan to seven years in prison, terming his marriage with Bushra Bibi in 2018 as a violation of Islamic law.
A petition was filed by Imran Khan against the court’s decision, on which in the hearing held in June, the court rejected his plea to suspend the February decision. But on Saturday, an Islamabad court said that “the appeal of both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi is accepted”.
Zulfi Bukhari, a senior official of Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, told Al Jazeera that the charges had been “dismissed”, while Khan’s lawyer Naeem Panjutha posted on X that the couple had been “acquitted”. However, Imran Khan is still behind bars, as a court this week cancelled his bail on charges of inciting riots by his supporters in May 2023.
Lawyer Intezar Hussain Panjutha told the news channel that Khan was produced before the court today [शनिवार] Will not be released even if acquitted”. An anti-terrorism court in Lahore this week approved Khan’s arrest in a case related to last year’s riots, his party’s legal team said. The court on Tuesday refused to grant bail to Imran Khan, saying investigations into his alleged role in the unrest were ongoing, despite the fact he was behind bars at the time.