FORMER Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife have been sentenced to seven years in prison over their illegal marriage.
It is the third ruling in just a week to hit the former leader, who was sentenced to 10 years for leaking state secrets and 14 with his wife for illegally selling state gifts.
A court on Saturday ruled that their 2018 marriage broke the law and fined them along with the seven year sentencing.
The pair apparently violated a law which says a woman has to wait three months before remarrying and both will spend seven years each behind bars.
His wife Bushra Bibi, 49, was married to a man who claims they divorced in November 2017. She married Khan in January 2018.
The former playboy ex-cricket star, 71, was ousted from Pakistani government through a no-confidence vote in April 2022 after being elected into office in 2018.
Khan is currently serving a three-year prison sentence over corruption allegations.
And an Islamabad court found him guilty of illegally selling state gifts last August – a charge the politician denied.
He was sentenced just days ago to a decade in prison for leaking official secrets alongside one of his party deputies.
And the very next day Khan and his wife were accused of keeping and selling on state gifts during his time in power.
They were sentenced to 14 years as a result.
The sentences come ahead of the February 8 parliamentary elections in Pakistan.
He is barred from participating in the national elections on Thursday.
Khan’s party previously said it would challenge the ruling on leaking of official secrets and called it a “sham case”.
Although Khan will not be on the ballot for the February election, he remains a potent political force because of his grassroots following and anti-establishment rhetoric.
He claims the legal cases against him are plots to sideline him ahead of the vote.
Pakistan has seen violent demonstrations since after Khan’s arrest in Mat 2023.
Authorities have cracked down on his supporters and party since then.
In May last year, footage showed Khan being arrested and bundled into a truck by riot cops.
He was detained by agents from Pakistan’s anti-corruption body, and dragged out of his wheelchair by a huge crowd of cops in riot gear.
After the politician was whisked away, a scuffle broke out between the former premier’s supporters and police.
His lawyer was left injured, as were several cops and members of the public.
Khan’s furious followers then attacked government and military property across the country.
Khan – who captained the Pakistan national cricket team through the 1980s and early 1990s – again denied wrongdoing and was released on bail within days.
The embattled former PM previously accused Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif of orchestrating a plot to assassinate him after he was shot at a rally.
Source: https://www.the-sun.com/news/10277159/pakistan-prime-minister-imran-khan-wife-sentenced-marriage/
