After nearly a year in jail, former Pak PM Imran Khan acquitted in illegal marriage case
Islamabad (PTI): A Pakistani court on Saturday acquitted jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in the un-Islamic marriage case, the only case keeping the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party founder behind bars since August last year.
On February 3 -- days before the general elections on February 8 -- an Islamabad court convicted the couple based on a complaint filed by Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband, Khawar Fareed Maneka, who alleged that they contracted marriage during the former first lady’s Iddat period.
In Islam, a woman can’t remarry before completing four months after divorce or the death of her husband.
The couple had challenged the sentence in a district and session court of the capital Islamabad where Additional District and Sessions Judge (ADSJ) Afzal Majoka heard the case.
The judge announced the judgment in the afternoon after reserving the verdict earlier in the day, acquitting Khan, 71 and Bushra, 49.
“If they are not wanted in any other case, then PTI founder Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi should be released [from jail] immediately,” the judge said after accepting their appeals.
But it was not clear if he would be released. However, it was the only case for which Khan was in jail after the Toshakhana corruption case sentence was suspended and acquittal in the cipher case.
The cricketer-turned-politician has been behind bars since August last year after he was sentenced in the Toshakhana corruption case and subsequently sentenced in other cases ahead of the February 8 elections.
Bibi’s ex-husband, Maneka, filed the case against the couple in November 2023, alleging that they married without her observing the mandatory waiting period of Iddat. He asked the court to declare the marriage null and void.
Khan and Bibi married in 2018, the year Khan went on to win elections and become prime minister.
Bibi was ostensibly his spiritual guide but the two developed affection for each other during their meetings. She got divorced from her husband of 28 years with whom she had five children.
She is the third wife of Khan, a former cricketing hero, who during his heydays of sporting career had a playboy reputation.
PTI chief Gohar Khan welcomed the verdict and said it was a victory for the independent judiciary. “All these cases were fake and he will also get justice in all other cases,” he said, demanding that Imran Khan should be freed as it was the last case in which he was convicted.
The judgment in the case comes a day after Khan’s embattled Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party won a huge legal battle when the Supreme Court declared it eligible for the reserved seats in Parliament and in the provincial assemblies following the controversy-ridden general election on February 8.
Pakistan’s Supreme Court on Friday ruled that the party was eligible for more than 20 seats reserved for women and minorities in Parliament.
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Prez nod for FIR against AAP's Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain in Rs 2,000-cr classroom 'scam'
New Delhi, Mar 13 (PTI): President Droupadi Murmu has given her approval for the registration of an FIR against AAP leaders Manish Sisodia and Satyendar Jain in an alleged scam of Rs 2,000 crore in the construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools, sources said.
In 2022, the Delhi government's vigilance directorate recommended a probe into the alleged scam and submitted a report to the chief secretary.
The President has given her approval for registering the FIR against Sisodia and Jain in connection with the alleged scam during their tenures as ministers in the Arvind Kejriwal-led Delhi government, the sources said.
The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), in a report dated February 17, 2020, highlighted "glaring irregularities" in the construction of classrooms in Delhi government schools by the Public Works Department (PWD).
The President's approval came under Section 17A of the Prevention of Corruption Act that pertains to "enquiry or inquiry or investigation of offences relatable to recommendations made or decision taken by public servant in discharge of official functions or duties".
Reacting to the development, senior AAP leader Saurabh Bharadwaj accused the BJP of carrying out a witch-hunt against its political rivals.
The BJP has no interest or intention to fulfil the promises it made to the people of Delhi. Its only agenda is to carry out a witch-hunt against its political rivals to stifle the voice of people, the former minister said in a statement.
The BJP-led central government has already decided to prosecute every political adversary of the party and grant approvals to move the case forward but it should wait for the judicial process to begin, he said.
In July 2019, BJP leader Harish Khurana and then AAP rebel MLA Kapil Mishra, now a minister in the Delhi government, lodged a police complaint about the alleged scam.
According to a report prepared by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) of the Delhi government, the complainants alleged that there was a scam worth over Rs 2,000 crore in the construction of classrooms and school buildings in Delhi. The work was done at a highly inflated cost by the Delhi government.
The alleged scam involves the construction of around 12,748 classrooms.
The ACB report said the total expenditure incurred for constructing the classrooms and school buildings was around Rs 2,892.65 crore. They were allegedly constructed at the rate of Rs 8,800 per square feet, whereas it was common knowledge that the average construction cost (even for a builder of flats) was around Rs 1,500 per square feet.
The total cost for constructing a classroom and school building, according to the tender awarded, was allegedly around Rs 24.86 lakh per room, whereas such rooms are easily constructed in Delhi at around Rs 5 lakh per room, it said.
The prices were increased almost five times to defraud the taxpayer by siphoning off money from the public exchequer in the garb of construction cost, the report said.
Even for a 5-star hotel, top ultra-luxury quality construction is around Rs 5,000 to Rs 5,500 per square feet, it said.
The complainants submitted a copy of documents in which information received under the RTI Act in respect of the construction of 18 classrooms in the Govt Girls Senior Secondary School, Nathupura, Burari (school ID:-1207111) revealed that they were constructed at a cost of Rs 12 crore, the ACB report said.
