Iddat case: Islamabad court rejects pleas seeking suspension of Imran, Bushra Bibi’s sentences – Pakistan

An Islamabad district and sessions court on Thursday turned down the pleas of ex-premier Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi to suspend their seven-year sentences in the Iddat case.

Additional district and sessions judge (ADSJ) Afzal Majoka announced the verdict today, which had been reserved on Tuesday.

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.

Following today’s verdict announcement, NA opposition leader Omar Ayub said the party would legally challenge the order in the IHC, adding that no dialogue with the government would take place until all PTI leaders and workers had been released.

The case

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.

As per Pakistan’s superior courts, formalising nikah during iddat does not entail annulment of marriage as that requires a separate declaration; it will be treated as irregular but not void, in terms of legal fiction.

The charges against the couple had been framed by Judge Qudratullah on a complaint filed in November by Maneka under PPC Sections 34 (common intention), 496 and 496-B (fornication).

However, the 496-B charge had been dropped by the IHC later.

Days after Imran and Bushra had been indicted in the case, the IHC on January 19 had stopped the proceedings against the couple and restrained the prosecution from producing the evidence in the case.

The IHC then refused to quash proceedings in the case, saying the charge had already been framed by the trial court. It, however, gave the couple some relief by dropping the “illegitimate relations” charge of section 496-B of the PPC, which had not been framed by the trial court.

IHC Chief Justice Aamer Farooq had disposed of Bushra Bibi’s petition, observing that the “req­u­­ired procedure was not ado­pted” for invoking sec­tion 496-B.