A Pakistan court has acquitted ex-prime minister Imran Khan’s conviction for illegal marriage on Saturday, Pakistani news media outlets said. He will, however, remain jailed over allegations that he incited riots.
An Islamabad District and Sessions Court “dismissed charges” against Khan in the Iddat case where a petitioner had challenged the legality of his marriage. The acquittal overturns the seven-year jail term Khan was handed just days before the elections held in February.
Khan, 71, and his wife, Bushra Khan, also known as Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to seven years in February when a court found them guilty of breaking Islamic law by failing to observe the required interval between Bibi’s divorce from a previous marriage and her marriage to Khan.
But Islamabad Additional District and Sessions Court judge Afzal Majoka announced in court that the “appeals of both Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi are accepted”.
Khan was slapped with a trio of convictions in the days before February elections — cases he says were orchestrated to prevent his return to power.
Those cases have now all been at least partially rolled back on appeal, with a treason conviction carrying a decade jail term overturned in April, and a 14-year graft sentence suspended in June, though the conviction still stands.
(with inputs from agencies)
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