Pakistan court to hear plea by jailed ex-PM Khan, wife in Al-Qadir Trust case

Islamabad: A Pakistani high court is scheduled to hear a plea filed by jailed former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, on Thursday, challenging their convictions in the Al Qadir Trust case.

An Islamabad accountability court in January last year sentenced 73-year-old Khan to 14 years and Bibi to seven years in prison in the corruption case led by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the anti-sleaze watchdog.

The two challenged the conviction in the Islamabad High Court (IHC), which was scheduled to hear their plea on April 22.


The hearing was, however, cancelled due to the closure of the Red Zone in the wake of expected Iran-US negotiations.

According to the cause list issued by the registrar's office, a division bench comprising Chief Justice Sarfraz Dogar and Justice Muhammad Asif will take the matter on Thursday.

The 190 million pound case pertains to allegations linked to the Al-Qadir Trust, a welfare organisation that runs a university outside Islamabad.

It is alleged that the trust was used as a front to receive land worth millions of dollars from a real estate tycoon.

According to NAB, the donations were made in exchange for the former premier's administration using repatriated funds from the United Kingdom to pay fines on behalf of the businessman instead of depositing the amount into the national exchequer.

Khan denied the allegations and said that neither he nor his wife derived any financial benefit from the trust or related transactions.