The court declaring the marriage of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi as illegal and against Shariah has sentenced them to seven years imprisonment each in the ‘un-Islamic’ marriage case.
The trial court besides handing down seven-year sentences, each, to Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi also imposed a fine of Rs 0.5million each.
The verdict was pronounced by Senior Civil Judge Qudratullah today, a day after the hearing of the case was conducted inside the jail premises for 14 hours a day earlier.
The case, filed by Bushra Bibi’s first husband, Khawar Maneka, alleges that Bushra violated the Islamic practice of observing the mandatory pause, or Iddat, between two marriages. Furthermore, Maneka accused his ex-wife and Khan of having an relationship before their marriage.
On Friday night, the verdict in the ‘un-Islamic’ marriage case involving former
The cross-examination of the four prosecution witnesses, including Maneka, Aun Chaudhry, Nikah Khawan Mufti Saeed, and Maneka’s employee Latif, has been completed. The defence was led by Advocate Salman Akram Raja for Khan and Advocate Osman Riaz Gul for Bushra.
Khan and Bushra submitted a joint statement of 342, answering 13 questions. In her statement, Bushra declared the divorce certificate of November 14, 2017, as fabricated, claiming she completed her mandatory iddat period from April to August 2017 after receiving a verbal triple talaq from Maneka in April 2017.
During the hearing, Bushra Begum maintained that the account of her divorce happening in November 2017 was completely false. She said that Maneka had divorced her in April 2017 after which she had completed her waiting period by August.
She added that she had moved to her mother’s house and had married Imran Khan in January of next year. She denied that a second nikkah had taken place.