Court Orders Immediate Release If No Other Charges Are Pending

 ISLAMABAD: After two long years of legal battles, the district and sessions court on Wednesday acquitted PTI founder Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, in the controversial iddat case (or un-Islamic nikah, to define it in legal terms).

 In a decision read today by Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka, Khan and Bushra’s appeals were answered. The judge overturned their conviction. 

Earlier this year, a trial court in February sentenced them to seven years in prison and Rs500,000 fine each, having ruled their marriage void, on the basis of a lawsuit filed by Khawar Maneka, Bushra’s ex-wife. Since then, Khan and Bushra have attempted to reduce or nullify the ruling through a series of petitions in higher courts.

Court’s Reasoning

Citing his lawyer’s assertion of Maneka’s right to Ruju (the period for reconciliation within iddat after divorce), the 28-page verdict drew attention to his client’s ‘inertia’ for the next six years – an inertia that had ‘vitiated’ his case. Khan and Bushra, essentially, were free to go, as the court rejected Maneka’s malicious prosecution case. At the time, I was on retreat at the Kamalashila Institute for Tibetan Buddhist Studies an hour north of Dharamsala. I huddled under a thin blanket in my rustic room, my hair stuck to my sweaty brow as my fingers pinged on a laptop late into the night. News reporting the court’s judgment reached me on 6 May. And I felt suddenly, deeply sick. While we can empathise with Maneka’s experiences, it takes a more forgiving magnanimity to relate to his pushiness. Even at the property dispute verdict, Maneka made repeated efforts to argue that Khan had married him fraudulently. Although he portrayed himself as a passive target of the unfaithful ‘other woman’, Khan, his key witness Talib, and his lawyers never relinquished their aggressive and belligerent approach. In the weeks before the challan – or report of the prosecution – was filed, they questioned the timing of the protests, the disruption that Khan’s legal team caused in the court, questioned co-accused Bushra’s presence in court, and asked why her name had appeared among the FIR suspects. At the time, I was on retreat at the Kamalashila Institute for Tibetan Buddhist Studies an hour north of Dharamsala. I huddled under a thin blanket in my rustic room, my hair stuck to my sweaty brow as my fingers pinged on a laptop late into the night.

Other Legal Battles

 Since the hints made, Khan has been held for more than a year, this time in a case relating to the Toshakhana that has been in the works since April last year. The iddat case is not related to the other two acquittals he secured last year, in reference L against him (allegations related to a £190 million oil deal made in the 1990s) and in the cipher case concerning the charges related to 2012; he had originally been held for all these cases. On 17 May, he managed to secure bail in all the May 9 cases pending in Lahore, Rawalpindi and Faisalabad.

 In May, the IHC directed the district court to decide ‘speedily’ the parties’ pleas to suspend and challenge convictions. In a 10-page order dated 20 October, Majoka rejected the suspension of the sentence on the grounds that there was ‘no grounds’ to do so, which sparked fierce reactions from the PTI leaders, who protested outside Adiala jail, where the bench was convened.

Overview of the Iddat Case

 It was only later, when Muhammad Hanif – the petitioner – argued that Bushra was still in her iddat period when she married Khan, thus the marriage violated both Sharia and Muslim norms, that the iddat case came in to play. In June 2023, the Islamabad court first declared Hanif’s plea inadmissible, saying it violated the provision against the triple talaq (a husband’s unilateral divorce). In September 2023, Maneka lodged an official complaint against Khan and Bushra for the ‘un-Islamic marriage’ and both were indicted in January 2024. In February 2024, the couple were convicted and sentenced to seven years in prison.

 Khan and Bushra then appealed against their conviction and sentencing. The case went back and forth through a series of appeals and delays. Majoka finally came back with the verdict: guilty. Judge Majoka now has to write her reasoning.

Moving Forward

 For Khan and Bushra, the ruling provides much-needed relief amid a rapidly changing legal landscape. For PTI, this acquittal is a vital win for its embattled leader. 
Source:https://www.geo.tv