Former Pakistan leader and wife sentenced to 14 years in prison

Pakistan’s former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi were sentenced to 14 years in prison after being found guilty of selling state gifts, the latest of three convictions against the former leader.

The couple were also barred from holding public office for 10 years in a hearing at Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi, where Khan is being held.

It comes a day after Khan, founder of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party, was sentenced to 10 years in jail for leaking state secrets.

His legal team dismissed the case as a “sham” and vowed to appeal against both sentences.

Lawyer Shoaib Shaheen dismissed the case as “unlawful, unjust and illegal”, and said the judge barred cross-examination in the case.

Mr Shaheen also claimed Khan was unable to choose his own legal representation.

“No legal requirements were fulfilled and permission to present witnesses and the statements were not recorded properly,” he told The National.

The sentencing comes as a blow to the PTI, which will contest Pakistan’s parliamentary elections next week.

Supporters of the party, which has faced increasing government crackdowns over support for Khan, have vowed to support its candidates at the polls after yesterday’s verdict.

“No matter what happens, Khan will secure victory in the next election and we will take revenge for such verdicts by giving vote to his party,” PTI supporter Shehzad Afridi Nawaz Sharif told The National.

Khan’s legal team suggested Judge Mohammed Bashr was in a “hurry” to deliver a verdict.

“Whatever is happening is in a hurry. Legal essentials should be fulfilled, and judgments should not be hastily passed,” said Haroon Rashid, political analyst and managing editor of The Independent’s Urdu language service.

Khan was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022. He was given a three-year prison sentence last August by another court for selling gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) during his four years in office.

That sentence was later suspended, but then overruled.

Khan claims the charges are politically motivated and said he feared for his life.

Khan was shot at an election rally in November 2022 in what he described as an “assassination attempt” orchestrated by the government.

His arrest and court cases have led to violent protests. One person was killed in May at demonstrations after his arrest in Lahore.