Daily Times

Bushra Bibi, wife of PTI’s founding chairman Imran Khan, has challenged her arrest in the third Toshakhana case, seeking action against the superintendent of Adiyala Jail and female employees for their alleged humiliating treatment during her rearrest.

Bibi filed her plea through senior lawyer Sardar Latif Khan Khosa in the Lahore High Court on Wednesday. She requested the court to declare her arrest illegal and halt any further false inquiries, investigations, or detention orders.

In her petition, Bibi named the Inspector General Police (IGP) Punjab, Superintendent of Adiyala Jail Rawalpindi, the Punjab government through the home secretary, and the federation of Pakistan through its secretary interior as respondents.

She claimed that she was physically assaulted, manhandled, and pushed by female jail staff during her rearrest, despite having no involvement in the case.

Bibi argued that she has been subjected to false and frivolous cases, including Toshakhana, Al-Qadir Trust, and the Iddat case, in an attempt to intimidate Imran Khan.

Her sentence was suspended in the Toshakhana case, and she was granted bail in the Al-Qadir Trust case. On 13 July 2024, she was acquitted in the Iddat case. However, instead of being released, she was rearrested within Adiyala Jail premises on new, ‘fabricated’ charges related to Toshakhana.

Bibi claimed that female jail staff traumatised her with physical and emotional abuse instead of facilitating her release.

She described the treatment as a violation of her dignity, noting that there was no warrant for her arrest and such actions are not permissible under jail regulations.

Bibi’s arrest, she argued, violates Section 17(d) of the National Accountability Ordinance 1999. She further contended that this third Toshakhana case lacked any clear reasons for her arrest or orders from the chairman of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB). Bibi stressed that she has the right to be informed of the charges against her and that the law has been flagrantly violated in her case.