- Court rejects plea to prioritise bail, suspension requests.
- Suspension pleas declared infructuous after appeals scheduling.
- Defence seeks early relief, court refuses interim hearing.
The Islamabad High Court has fixed the main appeals of the PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the £190 million case for hearing on May 7, while rejecting a request to prioritise pleas seeking their release on bail.
A division bench comprising IHC Chief Justice Sardar Muhammad Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif decided to proceed with hearing the main appeals filed by the former premier and his wife against their convictions in the £190m case.
An accountability court in Islamabad had earlier sentenced the PTI founder to 14 years’ imprisonment with a fine of Rs1 million, while Bushra was awarded seven years’ imprisonment along with a fine of Rs500,000.
The court rejected a request to take up the sentence suspension pleas first, which sought the duo’s release on bail pending a decision on the main appeals.
It subsequently disposed of those applications as “infructuous”, observing that the main appeals had already been fixed for hearing, making separate consideration unnecessary.
The defence counsel had argued that the suspension pleas should be heard in advance to secure interim relief before detailed proceedings begin.
On the other hand, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) maintained that once the main appeals had been scheduled for hearing, the sentence suspension applications could not be entertained separately, and should not be prioritised ahead of the appeals.
Earlier in March, the court imposed a fine of Rs100,000 on the anti-corruption watchdog’s special prosecutor for using delaying tactics in proceedings in this case.
Khan, who has been in jail since August 2023, faces several cases ranging from corruption to terrorism, following his ouster from power through the opposition’s no-confidence motion in April 2022.
Al-Qadir Trust case
The Al-Qadir Trust case, commonly known as the £190m case, involved allegations that Imran and some others in 2019 adjusted Rs50 billion — amounting to £190 million at the time — sent by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government during his tenure as the country’s prime minister.
The concerned amount relates to a property tycoon’s assets, which were seized by the NCA during PTI’s rule. The British crime agency back then had said that the amount was supposed to be passed to the Government of Pakistan as its settlement with the Pakistani property tycoon was “a civil matter, and does not represent a finding of guilt”.
However, the NAB filed a reference in December 2023, followed by charges against Imran and his wife, Bushra Bibi, on February 27, 2024, alleging that a settlement with the British crime agency was reached and approved by then-prime minister Imran on December 3, 2019, without disclosing details of the confidential agreement.
