Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been sentenced to 14 years in prison, in a case related to the illegal selling of state gifts.
This comes a day after Khan was jailed for 10 years for leaking state secrets.
An accountability court in Rawalpindi, which deals with corruption cases, on Wednesday also ruled that the couple would be ineligible to contest for public office for 10 years. They were also ordered to pay a fine of over 1.5 billion rupees ($5.3 m).
Khan, who was ousted as PM by his opponents in 2022, was in August 2023 sentenced to 3 years in prison for selling gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) he received when he was the prime minister from 2018 to April 2022.
It is believed the sentences against him will be served concurrently. Khan has already been detained, mostly at Adiala jail, since his arrest last August.
He maintains that the numerous cases against him are politically motivated.
These latest convictions come just a week before Pakistan’s elections on 8 February.
Khan’s party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PT), has already been stripped of its election symbol, with most of its candidates contesting as independents.
His wife Bushra Bibi surrendered at the jail after Wednesday’s verdict. The duo married in 2018, months before Khan was elected prime minister.
They had denied the charges that they sold state gifts they had received in office for personal profit.
A spokesman for Khan’s party described the ruling as: “Another sad day in our judicial system history, which is being dismantled.”
Ifunanya Ikueze is an Engineer, Safety Professional, Writer, Investor, Entrepreneur and Educator.
