Wife of Pakistan’s imprisoned former premier Imran Khan freed on bail

ISLAMABAD (AP) — The wife of Pakistan’s imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan was released from a high-security prison in the garrison city of Rawalpindi on Thursday, a day after a court granted her bail in a graft case, her lawyers said.

The release of Bushra Bibi came six months after an appeals court suspended a 14-year sentence the couple received after being found guilty of retaining and selling state gifts in violation of government rules when Khan was in power.

But Khan and Bibi, who is his third wife, were charged in July with new counts of retaining state gifts and kept in detention pending trial. Both have denied any wrongdoing.

Khan has been embroiled in more than 150 legal cases since 2022, when he was ousted in a no-confidence vote in parliament.

Khan, who remains a popular opposition leader, has been convicted and sentenced in several cases that were later overturned or suspended in appeals.

Bibi was freed from Adiala prison on Thursday, according to her lawyer Salman Safdar and Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Local TV stations showed her arriving at home in Islamabad on Thursday afternoon.

Khan’s legal team has filed a petition before a court seeking bail in same graft case.

The latest development came a day after dozens of Congressmen wrote a letter to the President Joe Biden, urging him to play his role for the release of all political prisoners, including Khan.

In June, a U.S. congressional resolution called for an independent investigation into allegations that Pakistan’s parliamentary elections were rigged, a charge which Pakistan denied.

Khan’s PTI party won the most seats in the Feb. 8 vote but fell short of a majority, paving the way for its rivals to form a coalition government.