ISLAMABAD: Today (Thursday) was proved as great setback for incarcerated couple Imran Khan and his spouse Bushra Bibi when an Islamabad court rejected their appeal seeking suspension of their sentence in an illegal marriage case.
The court room was over crowed but suddenly, there was complete pin drop silent as the Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka started announcing the order which was reserved after the conclusion of arguments by both the parties just two days before.
While hearing a plea filed by Bushra Bibi’s former husband Khawar Maneka, a district magistrate on February 3 convicted Bushra and Imran and sentenced them to seven years in prison for contracting marriage on January 1, 2018, without Bushra first observing the mandatory waiting—iddat—period.
The couple had challenged the judicial magistrate’s order in the court of Islamabad District and Session Judge Shahrukh Arjumand. However, the judge on May 29 referred the case to the Islamabad High Court (IHC) for its transfer to another court after Maneka expressed a lack of trust in him.
The IHC later listed the case for hearing in the court of Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Judge Muhammad Afzal Majoka. On June 13, the IHC also ordered the court to decide the couple’s request for suspension of their sentence within ten days.
At the hearing of the case on June 21, Imran’s counsel Salman Akram Raja has contended that no one is allowed to peep into the private matters of a woman while referring to an earlier verdict written by a bench also comprising famous scholar Mufti Taqi Usmani, Raja said.
According to the court’s written order, Imran and Bushra Bibi were found guilty under Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) Section 496 (marriage ceremony fraudulently gone through without lawful marriage).
According to legal precedence, Section 496 is considered an offence completely distinct from zina, an offence that ensues from not having a contracted marriage. The order further said that the two would be imprisoned for a further four months if they failed to pay the fines.
Details of Iddat case:
On February 3 — days before the general elections — an Islamabad court had convicted the couple based on a complaint filed by Bushra Bibi’s ex-husband, Khawar Fareed Maneka, who alleged that they contracted marriage during the former first lady’s Iddat period. Senior civil judge Qudratullah had sentenced the couple to seven years in jail and imposed Rs500,000 fine each.
The verdict had come in the same week the couple had been handed 14-year sentences in the Toshakhana case, and Imran and his foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi had received a 10-year sentence in the cipher case.
The Toshakhana case sentences had been suspended in April while earlier this month, Imran and Qureshi had also been acquitted in the cipher case.
The Iddat conviction was widely criticised by civil society, women activists and lawyers for being a “blow to women’s right to dignity and privacy”. Activists had protested in Islamabad against the verdict while a Karachi demonstration against the “state’s intrusion into people’s private lives” had also denounced it.
Previously, District and Sessions Judge Shahrukh Arjumand was hearing the case and had reserved the verdict in May. However, on the day of its expected announcement, he sought transfer of the case, citing Maneka’s request for recusal from hearing the appeals. Subsequently, the case was transferred to the court of ADSJ Majoka.
Last week, Maneka’s counsel had repeatedly sought an adjournment in the proceedings but judge Majoka ordered him to conclude his arguments by June 25. The court would then take up the main appeals against Imran and Bushra Bibi’s convictions, which it has been ordered by the IHC to do by July 13.
A petition filed by Bushra Bibi’s counsel seeking her release on bail and suspension is also pending before the IHC, with notices issued to the complainant and prosecution.
PTI to challenge the decision
PTI leader Omar Ayub, addressing the media after the announcement of the verdict, condemned the court’s rejection of the appeals and announced that the party would challenge the decision.
He reiterated that no dialogue would be held with the government until all PTI leaders and workers had been released. The PTI termed the development “absolutely ridiculous”.
In a post on its official X account, the PTI said the case was “unprecedentedly despicable in both our country’s as well as Islamic history”, and had been “globally condemned and brought immense embarrassment to Pakistan”.
“Every single individual responsible for fabricating and carrying this case will go down in the dirtiest, darkest alleys of history,” it asserted.