China News Service, Beijing, February 4th, Islamabad News: On the 3rd local time, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his current wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to seven years in prison by an Islamabad court due to marital issues. This is the fourth time Imran Khan has been convicted by the court since August last year.
According to Pakistan’s Dawn newspaper, the verdict stated that Bushra Bibi violated the relevant provisions of Article 496 of the Pakistan Penal Code by marrying Imran Khan before the waiting period had expired after divorcing her ex-husband. The two were sentenced to 7 years in prison and a fine of 500,000 Pakistani rupees each (1 rupee is approximately 0.026 yuan). If the two fail to pay the fine, their prison terms will be increased by four months.
After the verdict was announced, Imran Khan said the case was an attempt to "humiliate" him and his wife. This is also the first time in Pakistan’s history that a case related to the “waiting period” has been initiated.
According to Reuters, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party issued a statement saying that the hearing held by the court was very hasty, without cross-examining witnesses and failing to perform due process, which made a mockery of the law.
Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband had previously filed a complaint against Imran Khan and his wife under Sections 34, 496 and 496-B of the Pakistan Penal Code, which was heard by the Islamabad High Court. The court later dropped the Section 496-B charges, halted the proceedings on January 19 and restricted the prosecution from submitting evidence. On January 31, the Islamabad High Court refused to dismiss the proceedings in the case, saying that the first instance court had already filed the charges.
Imran Khan has been sentenced three times in a week. On January 31, Imran Khan and his wife were each sentenced to 14 years in prison and a fine of 787 million rupees each in a corruption case, and were disqualified from holding public office for the next 10 years. On January 30, Imran Khan and former Pakistani Foreign Minister Qureshi were sentenced to 10 years in prison by the court for "revealing state secrets." In August last year, Imran Khan was sentenced to three years in prison for corruption. He is currently serving time in prison. (over)