Pakistani court defers indictment of Imran, Bushra in graft case

Islamabad, February 24

A Pakistani accountability court has deferred the indictment of jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi in a Rs 50 million corruption case till February 27.

The court on Friday deferred the indictment of Khan and Bushra in the Al-Qadir Trust case filed by the National Accounta­bility Bureau (NAB) as the Islamabad High Court (IHC) is set to take up appeals against their conviction in Toshakhana and the Cipher cases on February 26, the Dawn newspaper reported.

Judge Nasir Javed Rana was hearing the proceedings of the case in Rawalpindi’s high-security Adiala Jail where Khan, the 71-year-old founder of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party is incarcerated.

Bushra Bibi, 49, is imprisoned at Khan’s Bani Gala residence in Islamabad.

The Al-Qadir Trust case pertains to the settlement of 190 million pounds, about Rs 50 billion, which the UK’s National Crime Agency sent to Pakistan after recovering the amount from Pakistani property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain.

Being the prime minister then, Khan, instead of depositing the money in the national treasury, allowed the businessman to use the amount to partly settle a fine of about Rs 450 billion imposed by the Supreme Court some years ago.