Legal trouble deepens as Imran, Bushra sentenced in £190m Al-Qadir Trust case – Pakistan

On By Littum

Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were convicted in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case on Friday, with the PTI founder sentenced to 14 years in prison and his wife to seven years in prison.

Judge Nasir Javed Rana announced the verdict – previously delayed three times – in a makeshift courtroom in Adiala jail. The court also imposed fines of Rs1 million and Rs500,000 on Imran and Bushra respectively. Failure to pay the fines would result in six months in prison.

The verdict was announced under tight security outside the Adiala jail, after which Bushra was arrested from the courtroom.

The couple was charged in the case on 27 February 2024, shortly after the general election.

The case alleges that Imran and Bushra Bibi obtained billions of rupees and land worth hundreds of kanals from Bahria Town Ltd to legalize Rs50 billion which was identified and returned to the country by the United Kingdom during the previous PTI government.

On December 23 – the original date for the verdict – an accountability court in Islamabad postponed its verdict in the case until January 6 due to winter holidays.

On January 6, the decision could not be delivered as Judge Nasir Javed Rana, who has heard the case, was on leave. In the subsequent hearing on January 13, the judge cited the reason for the delay as Imran and Bushra’s failure to appear before his accountability court in Adiala jail.

Addressing the media outside the Adiala Jail ahead of the hearing, PTI Chairman Barrister Gohar Ali Khan had said, “You can guess the injustice that has happened during the last two years.

“If a fair decision is made, Imran and Bushra will be acquitted,” he said.

Imran was jailed in August 2023 in a series of trials that he claims were “politically motivated”. Last year he was acquitted in the Cipher and Iddat cases, but was charged in the Toshakhana 2 case in December.

PTI reacts to verdict

Reacting to the verdict, PTI leader Omar Ayub told reporters outside Parliament that “Hassan Nawaz should have been asked how he took money from outside the country which was used to buy (property) in Hyde Park, but no one is asking this question.”

“We condemn this and we will challenge the judgment in superior courts,” Ayub said.

PTI leader Shibli Faraz also condemned the sentence, saying, “While the thieves are roaming free, those who are innocent and honest and on the path of justice (are being punished).”

filed a corruption reference against Imran and seven others, including his wife, in connection with Al-Qadir University Trust.

The reference filed by NAB alleged that Imran, who is currently in jail, played a “major role in the illegal transfer of funds meant for the State of Pakistan to an account designated for payment of land of Bahria Town, Karachi”. It also alleged that despite being given several opportunities to justify and provide information, the accused deliberately, with ulterior motive, refused to provide information on some pretext.

Property tycoon Malik Riaz Hussain and his son Ahmed Ali Riaz, Mirza Shehzad Akbar and Zulfi Bukhari are also among the suspects in this submission, but instead of participating in the investigation and subsequent court proceedings, they absconded and were subsequently declared Proclaimed Offenders (PO). .

Farhat Shahzadi, a close friend of Imran’s spouse, and Ziaul Mustafa Nasim, a legal expert for the PTI government’s Assets Recovery Unit, were also declared POs. Subsequently, the properties of all six accused had been frozen.

According to the reference, Riaz’s son transferred 240 kanals of land to Shahzadi, while Bukhari received land under a trust, which NAB claimed did not exist at the time of the transfer.

The prosecution further argued that a trust was only created after the £190m adjustment, raising doubts about its legitimacy and purpose.

In July 2024, Pervez Khattak, a key PTI leader at the time who parted ways with the party in 2023 after the May 9 riots, testified in a court that he was a participant in the December 2019 meeting where the then accountability adviser Mirza Shahzad Akbar presented a confidential deed in a sealed envelope for cabinet approval.

He said when he inquired about the document, Akbar said it was an agreement between the Pakistan government and the UK’s National Crime Agency on the return of proceeds of crime.

Days later, Azam Khan, Imran’s principal secretary at the time, also testified that Akbar brought a note seeking the former prime minister’s approval to present the confidential deed at the cabinet meeting.

Zubaida Jalal, the minister for defense production in the PTI-led government, testified in court that ministers were “kept in the dark” about the transfer of “proceeds of crime” to Malik Riaz.