Daily Times

Former premier Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were indicted in the £190 million corruption case on Tuesday by an accountability court.

Imran is the primary accused in the case and co-accused are his wife Bushra, former accountability czar Shahzad Akbar, former aide to premier Zulfiqar Bukhari, Zia Mustafa and Farah Shazadi aka Farah Gogi.

During the hearing, both accused denied the charges. The court also issued summons for five witnesses, out of the 58 witnesses in the case.

The counsel for the PTI founder argued that a copy of the reference should be provided to the accused at least a week before the indictment takes place and added that around 50 documents, which are important to the case, are not readable.

“We do not want any obstacles during the indictment process,” said the lawyer and further stated that a request has also been submitted seeking another copy of the said documents. The court then adjourned the hearing till March 6. Statements of the five witnesses will be recorded during the next hearing.

The reference, filed by NAB, accused the PTI chief and Akbar of collusion. It states that Akbar produced a misleading note on Dec 2, 2019, to show the account of the Supreme Court Registrar as the account of the state of Pakistan. It said that the PTI chairman, who was the prime minister at the time, was aware of the whole plan, as he had taken 458-kanal of land in 2019 that was transferred in the name of Zulfi Bukhari. It added that when the land was given, the Al-Qadir Trust did not exist. In the reference, NAB had requested that the accused be tried and punished.

Imran was arrested in the same case from the premises of the Islamabad High Court (IHC) premises on May 9, 2023.

This arrest triggered widespread protests nationwide. Subsequently, the Supreme Court declared Imran’s arrest on May 9 as illegal.

On December 1, NAB filed a corruption reference against the former prime minister, his wife, and other suspects in an Islamabad accountability court.