A court in Pakistan has acquitted the former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife on charges of unlawful marriage, just a day after his party won the majority of reserved seats in the supreme court.
Syed Zulfi Bukhari, an adviser to Imran Khan on international affairs and media, said: “The court has not only thrown out the case but the judge has ordered for the immediate release of Imran Khan and his wife.”
Bukhari said there is not a single pending case against Khan to keep him in prison. Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party asked for the immediate release of Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi.
Khan and Bibi were sentenced to seven years days before the general elections in February by a local court in Pakistan, which found them guilty of breaking Islamic law and failing to observe the required interval between Bibi’s divorce and their marriage.
Khan was sentenced in four big cases including the unlawful marriage and another involving allegations of leaking state secrets and has been imprisoned since last August. He has been acquitted in all cases or granted bail.
Khan’s supporters and close aides were celebrating the acquittal of the unlawful marriage allegations, known as the Iddat case, hoping it would pave the way for his release. But minutes after Khan’s acquittal order, local media reported that an anti-terrorism court in Pakistan had issued written orders for the arrest and questioning of Khan in cases related to 9 May violence during his arrest last year.
Soon after his arrest, violence erupted across Pakistan when Khan’s supporters attacked military installations and buildings in protest. Khan has been accused of being the mastermind of the unrest.
Bukhari said: “Now all of sudden we are just hearing that Khan has to be questioned in cases related to 9 May violence and also his wife in a corruption case. It is a mockery of justice but we know these fake cases won’t stand in the court of law.
“The courts are releasing Imran Khan but the administration and military establishment are putting fake cases one after another to put him in prison. Why were these cases not brought before?”
Khan had accused Pakistan’s powerful military and its chief of harbouring a personal grudge against him and ordering his arrest. For decades, Pakistan has been ruled by military dictators, and the powerful military still plays a huge role in politics.
Fawad Chaudhry, the former information minister and a former close aide of Khan, said he is behind bars because of politics not criminal activity.
“[The] arrest of Imran Khan is [a] continuation of [a] political vendetta against Pakistan’s most popular political leader,” Chaudhry said. “The authorities are too scared of freeing Imran Khan hence [a] series of fake criminal cases are put together to keep him in jail.”
Zahid Hussain, a political analyst and author, said Khan’s acquittal in the Iddat case was very much expected as it was frivolous and had no legal standing.
Hussain said: “It was also expected that the military establishment does not want Khan to be out of prison and he will be arrested in another concocted case. But it will not be easy for the military to keep Khan in the prison for quite long now as the judiciary is asserting itself, we have seen yesterday in the major reserved seats case, and the pressure from the military and government is not working.”