The Islamabad High Court (IHC) has granted bail to the imprisoned founder chairman of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Imran Khan in a 190-million-pound corruption case that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) framed against him.
The court has set this bail at Rs. one million, yet Khan will not be released from prison as he is still serving out his sentences in the cipher and the iddat cases. His sentences in two separate Toshakhana cases earlier have already been suspended by this court – the IHC.
A two-member bench of the IHC comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri announced this order today. The court earlier reserved the verdict after Khan’s lawyer Sardar Latif Khosa concluded his arguments yesterday. The accusation in his case states that former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife – former first lady Bushra Bibi – acquired significant amounts of money and land from Bahira Town Limited in exchange for legitimizing Rs. 50 billion, which had been identified and repatriated by the UK government when Khan was prime minister. It said that the grafted land amounts to hundreds of kanals.
The NAB’s Special Prosecutor Amjad Pervaiz In his concluding arguments today informed the court that the trial of the ex-premier and his wife was about to conclude. He said that out of 59 prosecution witnesses, 30 have testified so far, and the prosecution would cut the number of remaining witnesses by 10 to 15 and produce the rest for recording statements. He cited some references to which the Supreme Court turned down bail petitions in such situations. It was in December last year when NAB filed this reference against Khan and seven others, including his wife, in connection with the Al-Qadir University.
This reference states that Mr. Khan played a major role in the illicit transfer of funds that actually were the property of the state of Pakistan. It claimed that despite being given several opportunities to justify his position and provide information, he deliberately refused to give information on one pretext or another.
Property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain, Ahmed Ali Riaz, Mirza (son of Malik Riaz), Shehzad Akbar – former interior advisor- and Zulfi Bukhari were among the suspects in this reference. These suspects were also declared proclaimed offenders. Similarly, Farhat Shehzadi alias Farah Gogi – a close friend of Bushra Bibi and Ziaul Mustafa Nasim – Legal expert of the PTI’s Assets Recovery Unit, are also among the absconders.
The PML-N leader Talal Chaudhry commenting on this order of the IHC said that those falling under Articles 62 and 63 of the constitution are dispensing justice.
