Imran Khan sentencing live news: Ex-Pakistan PM, wife jailed for 14 years

Lawyer Rida Hosain says the haste in which Khan’s back-to-back convictions were announced is explicable.

“The right to a fair trial lies at the heart of any civilised society governed by the rule of law. Even those accused of the harshest of crimes must get a fair process. It is blatant that there was no fair process in this case,” she told Al Jazeera.

However, ex-Attorney General Ashtar Ausaf Ali said the PTI’s legal team was given ample opportunity to present its arguments.

“They failed to rebut or impeach the prosecution’s case,” he said.

The PTI say its central offices in Islamabad have been cordoned off and sealed by police.

The party was scheduled to hold a general meeting at the premises in preparation for the upcoming elections.

“Tehreek-e-Insaaf is being prevented from meeting even inside its office. Is it a level playing field?” the party said in a post on X, accompanied by a video showing police outside the building.

The former prime minister has long been at the centre of a political storm in Pakistan.

A few months ago, Start Here, Al Jazeera’s online video explainer series, took a look at his life and career to explain how he became so popular – and so divisive.

Watch the episode – featuring Farzana Shaikh, associate fellow, Asia-Pacific Programme, Chatham House; Uzair Younus, director, Pakistan Initiative, Atlantic Council; and Abid Hussain, Al Jazeera’s digital correspondent – below.

We have some reaction from Khan’s party.

PTI official Syed Zulfiqar Bukhari has told Al Jazeera the sentencing of the opposition leader was “yet another sad day in Pakistan’s judicial history” that showed that the “judiciary is being dismantled.

He described the ruling as “flawed” and “ridiculous” that “witnesses clearly seemed compromised”.

“Star witnesses were changed … with no cross-questioning allowed, no final argument concluded, and the decision pops up like a predetermined process in play,” Bukhari said.

It is the third conviction for Imran Khan, the embattled former prime minister and the main opposition leader, in the last few months.

The sentencing comes only a week before the general elections, scheduled to be held on February 8.

The verdict also includes a 10-year disqualification on Khan from holding public office, said his party, the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

Imran Khan’s wife Bushra Khan, commonly known as Bushra Bibi, gave herself up for arrest shortly after the verdict, reports said.

Bibi, who has also been sentenced to 14 years in jail with Khan, is known for her spirituality and devotion to Sufism, a mystical form of Islam.

Born Bushra Riaz Watto, she changed her last name to Khan after her marriage in 2018. Her husband and followers commonly refer to her as Bushra Bibi or Bushra Begum, titles that in Urdu denote respect.

She has kept a low profile since her marriage to Khan, a former cricket hero who has been in the public eye for decades.

The sentencing comes a day after the former prime minister and his close aide and ex-Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi were sentenced to 10 years in jail in a case related to the leaking of state secrets.

The so-called cypher case pertains to a diplomatic cable that Khan claims proves his allegation that his removal from power in 2022 was a conspiracy.

Source:https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/1/31/imran-khan-sentencing-live-news-ex-pakistan-pm-wife-jailed-for-14-years