Pakistani ex-Premier Khan sentenced to 14 years over university graft case
Baku, January 17, AZERTAC
A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to jail time over a graft case related to the Al Qadir University Trust, Anadolu Agency reported.
The former premier was sentenced to 14 years behind bars, and his wife to seven, in the thrice-postponed verdict announced inside Adiala jail in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Khan has been held since August 2023.
The judge had held the trial of the case inside the jail for many months.
Khan and Bibi were indicted in the case, popularly known as the “£190 million ($236 million) reference,” last February.
They can challenge the verdict.
The National Accountability Bureau said that Khan and his wife received billions of rupees and a large piece of costly land to build the educational institution in return for releasing £190 million to a property tycoon in 2020. Khan and his wife have denied the allegations.
The anti-corruption body had initiated an investigation and arrested Khan in May 2023 over the case, but his arrest was later declared illegal by the top court, and he was released on bail.
The amount was identified and returned to the country by the UK's National Crime Agency following a settlement with real estate tycoon Malik Riaz in 2019.
The anti-graft department alleges that Khan's PTI government struck a deal with Riaz that caused a loss of over $236 million to the national exchequer in a "quid pro quo" arrangement with the businessman.
Khan has weathered political storms since he was ousted from government in April 2022, a move he has blamed on Pakistan's former army chief, retired Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, and the US.
Since then the government has filed more than 200 cases against Khan, but he secured bail in many.
He was given jail terms in at least three cases which have either been reversed or vacated by courts.
Lawmakers of Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party also held protests outside the legislature in the Punjab province.
Aleema Khan, the former prime minister's sister, told reporters outside the jail that the verdict will be challenged in a higher court.
"Khan has said all (people) should read the Hamoodur Rahman Commission," Khan said, referring to the War Enquiry Commission on developments in 1971 when Pakistan was divided into two independent nations, with the birth of Bangladesh.
"The things (that) happened today, including the jail term of Khan, have happened in the past and are not new," said his sister.
Khan's lawyer Salman Safdar said the legal team will press for the higher court to set a hearing for their challenge by early next week.
Gohar Ali Khan, the PTI’s current chair, decried Friday’s verdict.
“The behavior of the court has been unjust. Khan sahib has not benefited from a single rupee from this matter," he said, as party aides slammed the judgment as unjust and shameful.
Zulfi Bukhari, an aide to Khan, said: "Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi have been convicted for being nonbeneficiaries and establishing a non-profit organization that’s built a university for over 300 students free of cost."
"In other countries, they would have received an award ... The struggle continues, Imran Khan is winning!" he wrote on X.
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