Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder and former prime minister, Imran Khan, along with his wife, Bushra Bibi, were arrested by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) on Saturday, just hours after being acquitted in the Iddat case.
A NAB team, led by Deputy Director Mohsin Haroon, arrived at Adiala Jail to take the couple into custody under a new reference related to the Toshakhana case. As prime minister, Khan and his wife allegedly obtained gifts from the state gift repository at low prices and sold them at higher rates. Following the completion of legal formalities, the NAB team formally arrested both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi.
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Additionally, a team investigating the May 9 cases in Lahore arrived at Adiala Jail, suggesting further potential arrests of the PTI founder in those cases.
In parallel legal battles, Imran Khan challenged the rejection of interim bails in three cases in the high court. Through his lawyer, Barrister Salman Safdar, Khan argued that the Anti-Terrorism Court dismissed his bails in three cases related to the May 9 riots contrary to the facts. The petitions request the high court to overturn the trial court’s decision and grant interim bails to the PTI founder.
Earlier in the day, Islamabad’s District and Sessions Court, led by Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka, had reserved its decision on the appeals against the sentences of Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi in the Iddat marriage case. The court ordered their immediate release unless they were wanted in other cases. This decision led to celebrations among PTI activists and supporters who had gathered outside the court premises.
The couple had been sentenced in the Iddat Nikkah case just days before the February 8 general elections. The initial conviction had been widely condemned by civil rights activists and legal experts. Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi had appealed against their convictions and were ultimately acquitted in the Iddat case before their arrest on the new Toshakhana reference.
