Daily Times

A district and sessions court Tuesday reserved its verdict on pleas filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi seeking suspension of their sentence in the iddat case.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC), earlier this month, had directed the district court to decide the pleas seeking the suspension of the sentence of former prime minister Khan and his wife Bushra within 10 days.

The court had also given one month’s time for the decision on the petition filed by the couple against their conviction.

The IHC’s orders came after the couple had filed multiple petitions with the ex-premier seeking the announcement of the district and sessions court’s reserved verdict and had further requested the high court to hear the appeals in the said case.

Meanwhile, Bushra had sought a decision on her plea filed in the sessions court seeking sentence suspension.

The verdict reserved today will be announced on June 27 (Thursday) at 3pm.

The hearing on the couple’s pleas seeking annulment of their conviction in the said case has been adjourned till July 2.

It is to be noted that in January, Khawar Maneka, Bushra’s ex-husband, had challenged the couple’s marriage and had termed their nikah as fraudulent, stressing that the marriage was solemnised during her iddat (the time a woman goes into isolation after a divorce or her husband’s death).

A trial court had then handed down a seven-year sentence to the couple in February and imposed a fine of Rs500,000 each on the duo.

Khan and Bushra had then filed various appeals including the ones against their conviction and those seeking suspension of their sentences.

Judge Shahrukh Arjumand had reserved the verdict on their appeals challenging their conviction on May 23.

However, in light of Maneka’s repeated expression of no-confidence, the IHC, on Judge Arujmand’s request, then transferred the case to the court of Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majuka.