Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan was sentenced to 14 years in prison today, while his wife, Bushra Bibi, received a seven-year sentence in a case related to corruption and misuse of authority involving the Al-Qadir University Project Trust.
The accountability court, operating from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, also fined Khan 1 million Pakistani rupees ($3,500) and Bibi half that amount. The verdict, reserved in December 2024 and delayed three times, was announced in Khan’s absence. Bibi was arrested at the court premises.
This is Khan’s fourth major conviction. Three earlier convictions from January 2024—pertaining to selling state gifts, leaking state secrets, and unlawful marriage—were overturned or suspended. However, Khan remains in custody with numerous other cases pending, which he describes as part of a political witch-hunt.
Initially arrested in May 2023 in connection with the Al-Qadir Trust case, Khan’s detention triggered nationwide protests marked by riots from his supporters.
Khan’s lawyer, Faisal Fareed Chaudhry, criticized the verdict as a continuation of “bogus persecution” against the former premier and his wife.
