FCC rejects Bushra Bibi’s plea to suspend sentence in £190 million case
- A two-member FCC bench dismissed Bushra Bibi’s application for suspension of her sentence.
- Her lawyer argued that grounds for bail existed and accused NAB of delaying proceedings.
- Bushra Bibi was sentenced to seven years in prison, while Imran Khan received a 14-year sentence.
The Federal Constitutional Court (FCC) on Wednesday rejected Bushra Bibi’s application seeking suspension of her seven-year prison sentence in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust case.
A two-member bench headed by FCC Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan and including Justice Baqar Najafi dismissed the plea after hearing arguments from her counsel, Barrister Salman Safdar. Lawyer Salman Akram Raja was also present in the courtroom.
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Safdar argued that courts had traditionally adopted a lenient approach towards women in such matters and said the former first lady had sought relief on that basis. He maintained that legal grounds for granting her bail existed following her conviction.
The lawyer also questioned the National Accountability Bureau’s conduct over the previous 13 months, alleging that it had sought adjournments on several hearing dates while opposing the application for suspension of sentence.
Safdar said earlier proceedings had largely centred on the appeal filed by Bushra’s husband, jailed former prime minister and PTI founder Imran Khan.
During the hearing, Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan instructed the counsel to confine his arguments to the suspension application rather than the merits of the case. Justice Baqar Najafi asked how many times the main appeal had been listed for hearing.
The bench concluded the hearing and directed Safdar to submit his arguments in writing before rejecting the application.
An accountability court in Islamabad had sentenced Bushra Bibi to seven years’ imprisonment and imposed a Rs500,000 fine. Imran Khan received a 14-year prison sentence and a Rs1 million fine in the same case.
The case concerns allegations that Khan and others arranged the adjustment of Rs50 billion, equivalent to £190 million at the time, returned by Britain’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to Pakistan in 2019 during his premiership. The funds were linked to assets of a Pakistani property tycoon seized by the British agency.
The NCA had described its settlement with the tycoon as a civil matter that did not amount to a finding of guilt, stating that the funds were to be transferred to the government of Pakistan.
NAB filed a reference in December 2023, and Khan and Bushra were charged on February 27, 2024. The bureau alleged that Khan approved the settlement on December 3, 2019, without disclosing the details of the confidential agreement.
