Islam Times - Pakistan’s Imran Khan, His Wife Acquitted in Unlawful Marriage Case

Islam Times - A Pakistan court acquitted former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife on July 13 on charges of unlawful marriage, a day after his party won more seats in Parliament, ramping up pressure on the country's fragile government.

“Imran Khan and Bibi sahiba are acquitted,” Khan’s lawyer Naeem Panjutha posted on X, using an honorific for Khan’s wife Bushra Khan, also known as Bushra Bibi, Reuters reported.

Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party said there were no more cases pending against Khan, 71, to keep him in jail after the acquittal by the court in the capital Islamabad.

The couple were sentenced to seven years in prison in February when a court found them guilty of breaking Islamic law by failing to observe the required interval between Bushra’s divorce from a previous marriage and her marriage to Khan.

It was not immediately clear whether Khan and his wife, both in jail, would be released following the decision on July 13.

All four jail sentences Khan received ahead of a February national election have now been overturned or suspended. The embattled leader, in jail since August 2023, was acquitted in July of charges of leaking state secrets. The other two sentences have been suspended.

But a court cancelled his bail last week related to violence in May 2023, where his supporters attacked military installations to protest against his arrest.

It was not immediately clear whether Khan had been remanded in that case to keep him in jail.

Khan is named as an accused party in several other cases, including the one of violence against the state. Bushra is an accused party on at least one other charge of the couple accepting land as a bribe from a real estate developer when Khan was in office.

The PTI warned that keeping him in jail despite the decision on July 13 to grant bail that day would lead to another political crisis.