Pakistan News: A Pakistani anti-graft court jailed former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Khan for 14 years each on charges of illegally selling state gifts, said his party the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) on Wednesday. This is the third conviction for the embattled former prime minister in the last few months.
The verdict also includes a 10-year disqualification from holding public office, said his party. Khan and his wife are charged with illegally selling gifts worth more than 140 million rupees ($501,000) in state possession and received during his 2018-2022 premiership.
The 14-year imprisonment is harsher than the 10-year sentence given to Khan on Tuesday on charges of revealing state secrets, and just a week before national elections in which he is barred from standing.
Imran Khan’s lawyers said they would be launching an appeal to Pakistan’s High Court in both cases.
Mr Khan was also handed a three-year prison sentence in August for the same charge by another court, but that sentence had been suspended on appeal. Today’s verdict followed an investigation by the country’s top anti-graft body, the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), which had also charged his wife in the case. Mr Khan, who was ousted as PM by his opponents in 2022, is already serving a three-year jail term for corruption.
