Pakistan court acquits former PM Imran Khan, wife in unlawful marriage case

Acquittal comes after another appeals court upheld the couple’s conviction, but Khan’s lawyer says he won’t be released.

A court in Pakistan has acquitted former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife on charges of unlawful marriage, according to his party and lawyer.

Khan and his wife Bushra Khan, also known as Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to seven years in prison, days before Pakistan’s election in February, a court ruling at the time that their marriage in 2018 violated Islamic law.

In June a court rejected their plea to have the February ruling suspended.

But on Saturday, an Islamabad court said the “appeals of both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi are accepted”.

Zulfi Bukhari, a senior official in Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party told Al Jazeera that the charges had been “dismissed”, while Khan’s lawyer, Naeem Panjutha, posted on X, that the couple “are acquitted”.

Khan remains behind bars as a court this week cancelled his bail over accusations he incited riots by his supporters in May 2023.

Lawyer Intazar Hussain Panjutha told Al Jazeera that Khan “will not be released despite acquittal today [Saturday]”.

An anti-terrorism court in Lahore this week approved Khan’s arrest in a case related to last year’s riots, his party’s legal team said.

The court refused to grant him bail on Tuesday as the investigation into his alleged role in the unrest continues, despite the fact he was behind bars at the time.

Bukhari told Al Jazeera that “at this moment, there is not one case on which Khan can be kept in jail any more”.

The marriage case was filed last year by Bibi’s former husband, Khawar Maneka, who alleged that his divorced wife did not observe the necessary three-month break required under Islamic law before