Tough road ahead for Imran Khan despite back-to-back judicial relief

Islamabad: Despite back-to-back judicial relief to beleaguered Imran Khan, his woes are far from over and Pakistan’s former prime minister remains in jail with his wife Bushra Bibi.

A district and session court on Saturday overturned the conviction of 71-year-old Khan and his wife Bushra, 49, in the un-Islamic marriage case related to the violation of the mandatory waiting period for a Muslim woman between two marriages.

The relief came a day after the Supreme Court in a key judgment declared that his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was eligible for the seats reserved for women and minorities in the national and four provincial assemblies.

The PTI will become the largest party in the National Assembly with 109 seats after the Supreme Court ruling.

Two successive victories for Khan were being interpreted as some kind of change of heart on the part of the

powerful establishment towards the PTI and its founder, but the subsequent developments belie any such possibility.

The court in the Iddat case verdict stated that Khan and his wife should be released “if not required to be detained in any other case” and anticipating his release a large number of PTI supporters accompanied by key leaders reached the Adiala Jail Rawalpindi, where they have been kept, to welcome them.

But the PTI feared counter-measures by the government and announced that Khan would be arrested in three cases related to May 9 violence.

However, it emerged that he and his wife were taken into custody by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) in a fresh Toshakhana corruption case.

Khan and his wife during his government allegedly obtained gifts from the gift repository at low prices and sold them at higher rates.

It is the third Toshakhana case and Khan’s sentence in the two previous Toshakhana cases had been suspended by the Islamabad High Court.

The new case alleged that the couple got some precious watches and other gifts from the state depository by violating rules.

Khan faces a slew of cases launched against him since his ouster from power in April 2022 after he fell out with the establishment which was believed to be instrumental in bringing him to

power.