Bushra gets bail in £190m case

ISLAMABAD. The Accountability Court in Islamabad on Tuesday granted bail to Bushra Bibi, wife of former prime minister Imran Khan, in the £190 million corruption case.

Judge Muhammad Ali Warraich presided over the hearing in the Adiala Jail, where both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi faced charges in the high-profile corruption case. The court approved Bushra Bibi’s pre-arrest bail request, providing some relief in the ongoing legal battles faced by the former first lady.

The decision comes after Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi argued against the necessity of her arrest noting that the chairman of National Accountability Bureau had not issued an arrest warrant. The court has adjourned further proceedings on the reference until July 5th. During the hearing, defence lawyers completed the cross-examination of three prosecution witnesses, bringing the total number of witnesses cross-examined in the case to 27.

However, prison officials stated that she could not be released due to her conviction in the Iddat case. “Despite the bail being approved, Bushra Bibi cannot be released because she is serving a sentence in the Iddat marriage case,” said jail authorities.

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in December 2023 filed the £190 million corruption reference against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Chairman Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi, a close family friend Farah Gogi, Shahzad Akbar, Barrister Ziaul Mustafa Naseem and Zulfi Bukhari in the accountability court.

The couple were indicted in this case by a Rawalpindi accountability court in February. NAB Deputy Prosecutor General Sardar Muzaffar Abbasi and Investigation Officer Mian Umar Nadeem submitted the reference against eight accused to the court’s Registrar’s Office. Documents submitted include arrest warrants for the accused and a witness list comprising 59 individuals.

The reference accused the PTI chief and Akbar of collusion. It said that Akbar produced a misleading note on Dec 2, 2019, to show the Supreme Court Registrar’s account as that of the state of Pakistan. It said the PTI chairman, who was the prime minister at the time, was aware of the whole plan, as he had taken 458-kanals of land in 2019 that was transferred in the name of Zulfi Bukhari. At the time of land transfer, the Al-Qadir Trust did not exist.

In a brief conversation with journalists in the courtroom in Adiala jail, Bushra Bibi, criticising the government, said the incumbent government was bringing the country and the army into disrepute. They have damaged the economy and made life miserable for the common man with sky-high inflation. They are a bunch of corrupt people who are out there to mint money and save themselves from graft cases. They are bent upon persecuting the opposition by instituting false cases against them, Bushra concluded.