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Imran Khan, former Pakistan PM, sentenced to 14 years in jail in land corruption case
NAB filed the case against Imran Khan, his wife Bushra Bibi and six others in December 2023 , accusing them of causing a loss to the tune of 190 million pounds.
Former Pakistan Prime Minister Imram Khan was handed a 14-year prison sentence by a local court in a land corruption case related to the Al-Qadir Trust on Friday, ARY News reported.
His wife Bushra Bibi has also been sentenced for 7 years in jail.
The verdict in the case, the largest in terms of financial wrongdoing faced by Khan, was delivered by an anti-graft court in a prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi, where Khan has been jailed since August 2023.
Judge Nasir Javed Rana of the anti-corruption court announced the verdict that had been deferred thrice due to different reasons, last time on January 13.
The judge announced the verdict in a makeshift court set up in Adila jail.
The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in December 2023 filed the case against Khan (72), his wife Bushra Bibi (50) and six others, accusing them of causing a loss to the tune of 190 million pounds (PRs50 billion) to the national kitty.
However, Khan and Bibi have been prosecuted as all others, including a property tycoon, were out of the country.
What is the Al-Qadir Trust case that landed Imran Khan in jail for 14 years?
The case revolves around allegations that an amount of PRs50 billion, returned to Pakistan by the UK's National Crime Agency as part of a settlement with a property tycoon, was misused.
The couple are accused of accepting a gift of land from a real estate tycoon in exchange for laundered money when Imran Khan was in power.
Prosecutors say the businessman, Malik Riaz, was then allowed by Khan to pay fines that were imposed on him in another case from the same laundered money of 190 million British pounds ($240 million) that was returned to Pakistan by British authorities in 2022 to deposit to the national exchequer.
The funds were allegedly redirected for the personal benefit of the businessman who helped Bibi and Khan to set up a university.
Bibi, as a trustee of the Al-Qadir Trust, is accused of benefiting from this settlement, including acquiring 458 kanals of land for Al-Qadir University in Jhelum.
Khan has denied wrongdoing and insisted since his arrest in 2023 that all the charges against him are a plot by rivals to keep him from returning to office.
The cricketer-turned politician was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament in April 2022. He had previously been convicted on charges of corruption, revealing official secrets and violating marriage laws in three separate verdicts and sentenced to 10, 14 and seven years respectively. Under Pakistani law, he is to serve the terms concurrently — meaning, the length of the longest of the sentences.
