An accountability court on Monday approved Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan’s wife and former first lady Bushra Bibi’s pre-arrest bail in the £190 million reference.
The development comes after a two-member Islamabad High Court (IHC) bench comprising Chief Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Tariq Mehmood Jahangiri had approved Khan’s bail plea in the said case in May. The former prime minister, along with Bushra and other PTI leaders, are facing a NAB inquiry related to a settlement between the PTI government and a property tycoon, which reportedly caused a loss of £190 million to the national exchequer.
The couple, however, remains behind bars due to the iddat case and is unlikely to be freed after a district and sessions court rejected their pleas seeking suspension of the sentences in the aforesaid case.
During the hearing today, the NAB presented three more witnesses who were cross-examined by the defence lawyers. So far, statements of 30 witnesses have been recorded in the case, of which, 27 have gone through cross-examination. The accountability watchdog’s counsels also apprised the court that the arrest warrant for the former first lady has not been issued yet. The court then summoned other witnesses on the next hearing and adjourned the case till July 5.