Jailed Pakistani former Prime Minister Imran Khan and wife convicted for ‘fraudulent marriage’

Islamabad, Pakistan CNN —

Jailed Pakistani former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been sentenced to seven years in prison after a district court ruled their 2018 marriage violated the law.

This is the third sentence for Khan and the second for his wife this week.

A short order issued by the court and obtained by CNN states that both respondents were found guilty of “a marriage ceremony fraudulently gone through without lawful marriage.”

Bibi’s former husband, Khawar Farid Maneka, had filed a case against Khan and Bibi almost six years after his divorce and accused them of marrying without completing the Iddat — a compulsory waiting period in Islam after divorce — and committing adultery.

Bushra Bibi (center), wife of Imran Khan, leaves after a hearing of the bail case of Khan, at the High Court in Islamabad, Pakistan, in October 2023.

The conviction was by a district court in Adiala Jail in the city of Rawalpindi where Imran Khan – who has been imprisoned since August on various charges – is currently incarcerated. Proceedings were held in the jail due to security reasons.

Khan’s party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) released a statement condemning the judgment calling it “a mockery of the law.”

Former Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan leaves after appearing at the high court in Lahore on March 17, 2023.

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PTI spokesperson Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari told journalists that he was a witness to the marriage ceremony in 2018 and called the judgement “a victory for Imran Khan. Shows everything else is also false on him hence such ridiculous cases and sentences need to be slapped on him.”

This latest conviction