Accountability Court to announce ruling in £190m case against Imran Khan, Bushra Bibi on Jan 6, 2025

RAWALPINDI, Dec 23 (SABAH): An accountability court on Monday said that the verdict on the £190 million case against Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) founder Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi would be announced on January 6, 2025.

Accountability Court Judge Nasir Javed Rana announced that the ruling would be delayed, noting the upcoming winter holidays and a course at the high court. The court’s official winter vacation begins on December 24 and runs until January 1.

The judge stated that the verdict against Imran and Bushra will be announced on January 6, 2025.

At the last hearing, Barrister Salman Safdar, counsel for the couple, argued that the case was one of “political revenge”, adding that the defence had been proved innocent in previous cases.

He said the case was one in which the matter involved PML-N President Nawaz Sharif’s son, Hassan Nawaz, as well and yet the latter was not included in proceedings.

“The reference was made to target a specific couple. Before becoming the prime minister, the PTI founder was known as a social worker, collecting donations worth billions of rupees,” he said.

Also known as the Al-Qadir Trust case, the former prime minister along with his wife, Bushra and others have been accused by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) of causing a loss of £190 million to the national exchequer via a settlement between the PTI government and a property tycoon.

During the one-year-long trial, NAB recorded testimonies of 35 witnesses, including former principal secretary Muhammad Azam Khan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa ex-chief minister Pervez Khan Khattak and former federal minister Zubaida Jalal.

The said case is part of the plethora of legal challenges faced by the incarcerated PTI founder who has been behind bars since August last year after he was sentenced in Toshakhana case-I.

Imran and Bushra were indicted in the case on February 27, following the general elections.

The case alleges that Imran Khan and others involved adjusted Rs50 billion—equivalent to £190 million at the time—that was transferred by the UK’s National Crime Agency (NCA) to the Pakistani government.

As PM, Imran Khan obtained cabinet approval for this settlement on December 3, 2019, without disclosing the confidential details of the agreement. The arrangement had stipulated that the funds would be submitted to the Supreme Court.

In his testimony earlier this month, Imran Khan dismissed the corruption charges as politically motivated, alleging that his political rivals had used state institutions to target him.

The corruption reference also names several other individuals, including Mirza Shehzad Akbar, Zulfi Bukhari, and Farhat Shahzadi, all of whom have been accused of conspiring to divert state funds.

During the proceedings, the Islamabad High Court granted bail to the disqualified premier in the £190 million reference, while the trial court approved pre-arrest bail for Bushra.

The PTI founder-chairman submitted a list of 16 witnesses to the court, but the request to summon them was rejected.

Over the course of the case, four judges were replaced with Judge Muhammad Bashir, Judge Nasir Javed Rana, Judge Muhammad Ali Warraich, and then again Judge Rana presiding over the hearings.

According to NAB officials, the PTI founder and his wife obtained land worth billions of rupees from the property tycoon, to build an educational institute, in return for striking a deal to give legal cover to the property tycoon’s black money received from the UK crime agency.

Later, the Al-Qadir Trust was established in Islamabad a few weeks after the PTI-led government approved the agreement with the property tycoon.