Wednesday, January 31, 2024 – Pakistan's former prime minister, Imran Khan has been sentenced to 14 years in jail on a graft charge just one day after he was given a 10-year prison term a week before national elections.
The former cricketer and his wife Bushra Bibi were both
found guilty of retaining and selling state gifts he received while in office
for personal profit.
They were sentenced on Wednesday, January 31, hours after
Khan was slapped with a 10-year sentence in a case related to leaking state
secrets.
It comes as the country of 240 million goes to the polls
next Thursday in a ballot already marred by allegations of rigging, with Khan
barred from running and his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party subject to a
massive crackdown.
'Another sad day in our judicial system history, which is
being dismantled,' a party spokesman told media.
The sentencing of Khan has also heralded the return of Nawaz
Sharif - head of one of the two dynastic parties that have historically helmed
Pakistan - whose own raft of convictions for corruption have been wiped.
It was not immediately clear if Khan's sentences were to run
consecutively or concurrently following a trial held inside the jail where he
has been detained for much of the time since his arrest in August.
But his lawyer, Salman Safdar, confirmed he had been
sentenced alongside his wife, Bushra Bibi, who had been on remand throughout
the trial.
Intazar Hussain Panjutha, a member of Khan's legal team,
said Bibi had surrendered herself to authorities.
Bibi, a faith healer who met Khan when he approached her for
spiritual guidance, rarely appears in public and only wearing a face-covering
hijab when she does.
The pair married in 2018, months before Khan was elected
prime minister.
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