Pakistan HC rejects sentence suspension pleas for Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi

Islamabad: Pakistan High Court on Monday, May 4, rejected the petitions of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi seeking the suspension of their sentences in the 190 million pound Al Qadir Trust case.

Khan and Bushra, who were sentenced to 14 and 7 years in jail respectively in the case last year, had challenged the sentences in the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

A two-member bench headed by Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar declared the suspension of sentence applications infructuous, while setting May 7 as the date for hearing the appeals against conviction.

The 190 million pound case pertains to allegations linked to the Al-Qadir Trust, a welfare organisation established in 2018. The trust, which runs a university outside Islamabad, is accused of being used as a front to receive land worth millions of dollars from a real estate tycoon.

According to charges, the donations were made in exchange for the former premier’s administration using repatriated funds from the UK to pay fines on behalf of the businessman, instead of depositing the amount into the national exchequer.

Khan denied the allegations during the trial, maintaining that neither he nor his wife derived any financial benefit from the trust or related transactions.