Former Pakistani PM Bushra Bibi and his wife imprisoned due to corruption

Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi have been sentenced to 14 years in prison, which is the second sentence given to the former prime minister of Pakistan in two days.

The two sentences were said a week before the South Asian country’s election, where he cannot run for office.

Khan was removed as Prime Minister in 2022 and is now in jail for three years for being corrupt.

He believes that the many lawsuits against him are because of politics.

On Wednesday, he was in court for getting presents from the state while he was in charge, and his wife got them too. On Tuesday, he was in court for sharing secret government papers and got 10 years in prison. It is believed that the two sentences will happen at the same time, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet.

The court told the couple to pay a 1. 5 billion rupee fine (which is about 4. 2 million pounds or 5. 3 million dollars)

Khan’s PTI party said that their leader is banned from doing political work for 10 years. He also can’t hold a public office.

Khan’s lawyers said they will ask Pakistan’s High Court to review both cases.

The ex-prime minister and cricket player has been in jail since August when he was arrested. He has been in Adiala jail in Rawalpindi for most of the time.

His wife Bushra Bibi, who had been released from custody, turned herself in at the jail on Wednesday. She usually stayed out of the public eye while they were in office. They got married in 2018, a few months before Khan became prime minister.

Both of them said they didn’t do what Pakistan’s anti-corruption group said they did. They denied selling or keeping state gifts for their own gain. The Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia gave a jewellery set as a gift.

The PTI says the cases against Khan are fake. They think the trials happened in unfair courts where things happened too quickly. The case on Wednesday was called a “sad day in our judicial system history” and the judiciary is being “dismantled”.

“You cannot ask any more questions, no final arguments can be made, and the decision seems to have already been made,” it claimed.

Khan’s lawyers also said he didn’t have a chance to defend himself in a trial that went faster than they thought it would. The judge said the decisions when Khan, Bibi, and their lawyers were not in the room, according to reporters.

At the same time, Khan’s sister, Aleema Khan, said to the media outside Adiala jail that they were not sure what time the case was supposed to begin.

Khan has not said anything about the decision on Wednesday. The decision came after a judge found him guilty of sharing a secret document and hurting relationships between countries. Khan told his supporters to vote on February 8 and seek revenge for any wrongs in a peaceful way. He said this in a message on his social media account.

Even before the sentences were given, people were already doubting if the election next Thursday can be trusted because Khan and his party have been ignored a lot.

The government says they didn’t crackdown on PTI, but many of its leaders are in jail or have left the party. The people running for election are not part of any political party and a lot of them are actively campaigning.

Many of the party’s followers were arrested after protests, some of which turned violent, when Khan was taken into police custody last May.

The party no longer has the cricket bat symbol, which is important for voters who can’t read well to know where to mark their vote.

The person expected to win is Nawaz Sharif, who used to be the prime minister three times before. He came back from living outside his country in the fall. He caused a lot of trouble for the military during his long career and was put in jail for doing bad things before the 2018 election that Imran Khan won.

Many people think that the Pakistan military likes someone else more now, instead of Khan, who they used to like.