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Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan, wife sentenced to 14 years in state gifts case

Pakistan ex-PM Imran Khan, wife sentenced to 14 years in state gifts case
January 31, 2024



A day after another court convicted him of leaking state secrets and sentenced to 10 years in prison, Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan along with his wife Bushra Bibi have been given a 14-year jail term in a case related to the illegal sale of state gifts. The Rawalpindi accountability court that handles corruption cases also ruled that the couple would be barred from running for public office for 10 years and imposed a fine of 787 million rupees ($2.8m) on each of them.
It is not clear whether the sentences are to run consecutively or concurrently. Khan has been in jail since August and is facing trial in multiple cases, as confirmed by his lawyer Intezar Hussain Panjutha to Al Jazeera. Bushra Bibi has also surrendered to prison authorities.
In August, Khan was given a three-year prison sentence by the Election Commission of Pakistan for not disclosing assets linked to the sale of state gifts worth over 140 million rupees ($501,000) which he had received during his tenure as the prime minister from 2018 to April 2022. The sentencing in that case was suspended. The latest sentencing pertains to a parallel case brought by an anti-corruption agency, in which Khan and his wife are accused of graft in the sale of state gifts.
The convictions against Khan came just a week before the general elections on February 8. His party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), has been stripped of its election symbol, the cricket bat, and all its candidates are running as independents. PTI official Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari criticized the sentencing of Khan and questioned its legitimacy, stating that the judiciary is being dismantled.
Political analyst Cyril Almeida sees Khan’s conviction as a message from the powerful military to the people before the upcoming vote, suggesting that the military is influencing the electorate to not vote for Khan. Pakistan’s military holds substantial political power and has directly ruled the country for a significant portion of its history.
The rapid succession of convictions against Khan drew criticism from lawyer Rida Hosain, who highlighted the importance of a fair trial and stated that the process in this case was unfair. However, former attorney general of Pakistan, Ashtar Ausaf Ali, commented that the PTI’s lawyers had sufficient opportunity to present their arguments but failed to rebut or impeach the prosecution’s case.
On Tuesday, the United States State Department declined to comment on Khan’s sentencing in the state secrets case, emphasizing the need for a democratic process to unfold and not taking a position on internal Pakistani matters or candidates for office in Pakistan.

OpenAI
Author: OpenAI

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