Imran Khan: Pakistan ex-PM and wife Bushra Bibi jailed for illegal marriage
Imran Khan and his wife have been sentenced to seven years in jail by a Pakistani court following the annulment of their marriage, marking the latest legal blow to the former prime minister.
The court declared Khan’s 2018 marriage to Bushra Bibi, a spiritual healer, as un-Islamic and invalid.
Khan, who is already incarcerated for corruption, was convicted alongside his wife just a week before a general election, accused of unlawfully benefiting from state gifts.
The 71-year-old Khan contends that the charges against him are politically motivated.
A makeshift court was established within Rawalpindi’s Adiala Jail, where Khan is currently serving his previous sentences, to address this latest case.
The complaint was lodged by Bibi’s former husband, alleging fraudulent conduct in her marriage to Khan.
According to Muslim family law, women are prohibited from remarrying for a certain period after divorce or the death of their husband. The court determined that Bibi had remarried before the legally mandated waiting period elapsed.
In addition to the seven-year prison term, the court levied a fine of 500,000 rupees ($1,800; £1,420) against Khan and Bibi.
The couple tied the knot in 2018, shortly before Khan assumed office as prime minister. Bibi, believed to be in her 40s and always veiled in public, is Khan’s third spouse.
Khan had a playboy reputation in his cricketing years before he settled down to a society marriage with British socialite Jemima Goldsmith in 1995. The marriage lasted nine years and produced two sons.
A second marriage in 2015, to journalist and former BBC weather presenter Reham Khan, lasted less than a year.
The former PM has been detained since his arrest last August.
Saturday’s prison sentence is Khan’s third in less than a week. On Tuesday, he was jailed for 10 years for leaking classified documents.
Wednesday’s court case centered on accusations that he and his wife had sold or kept state gifts received in office, including jewelry from the Saudi Crown Prince.
Both were given 14-year sentences in that case. The court ruled that Bushra Bibi was allowed to serve hers under house arrest.
Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party has said he was tried by “kangaroo courts”.
Even before the latest sentences were handed down, many were questioning the credibility of next week’s election as Khan and his party have been sidelined.
The authorities deny carrying out a crackdown, but many PTI leaders are behind bars or have defected.
Thousands of the party’s supporters were rounded up after protests – at times violent – when Khan was taken into custody last year.
The man tipped to win is three-time former PM Nawaz Sharif.
He was jailed for corruption ahead of the 2018 election that Imran Khan won. Many analysts say he is now favored by Pakistan’s powerful military establishment.
