Pakistan apex anti-graft body files corruption case against Imran Khan, his wife

Islamabad: A Pakistani accountability court on Friday filed a corruption case against jailed former prime minister Imran Khan, his wife and other suspects in a corruption case.

The National Accountability Bureau's (NAB) Deputy Prosecutor General Muzafar Abbasi and investigative officer Umar Nadeem filed the case in an accountability court in Islamabad.

A total of eight people have been charged in the case. Others besides 71-year-old Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party chief include his wife, Bushra Bibi, her friend Farhat Shahzadi aka Farah Gogi, PTI leader Zulfi Bukhari, former accountability czar Shahzad Akbar and Barrister Zia-ul-Mustafa Naseem.

The NAB on Friday filed the corruption case against former prime minister Khan, his wife and other suspects in the 190 million pound settlement case, Geo News reported.

The case comes as the anti-graft buster concludes its investigation with the court sending the PTI chief on judicial remand in the £190 million Al-Qadir Trust corruption case.

The Al-Qadir Trust case is about the settlement of £190 million, which the UK’s National Crime Agency sent to Pakistan after recovering the amount from a Pakistani property tycoon.

Being the prime minister then, Khan, instead of depositing in the national treasury, allowed the businessman to use the amount to partly settle a fine of about Rs 450 billion imposed by the Supreme Court some years ago.

The tycoon, in return, allegedly gifted about 57 acres of land to a trust set up by Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, to establish the Al-Qadir University in the Sohawa area of the Jhelum district of Punjab.

Hearing the case earlier this week, on November 27, accountability court judge Muhammad Bashir rejected NAB's request for extending Imran’s physical remand in the case.

The court instead, sent the PTI chairman on a 14-day judicial remand.

At the previous hearing, on November 24, the judge had instructed NAB to conclude its investigation and present a report.

Officials from the accountability bureau have been visiting the Adiala Jail since November 15 to investigate the PTI chief's role in the case.

Khan has been in jail since August 5 when he was arrested due to a conviction in the Toshakhana corruption case. In September, he was shifted from the Attock prison to Adiala jail.

The former cricketer-turned-politician was ousted through a vote of no-confidence in April 2022. More than 150 cases have been registered against him since his ouster from power.