Imran Khan may secure bail on 11 June, says party leader

FORMER prime minister Imran Khan, 72, is expected to seek bail in the Al-Qadir Trust case when the Islamabad High Court (IHC) hears petitions on 11 June to suspend the sentences handed to him and his wife Bushra Bibi.

Khan has been held in Adiala Jail since August 2023 in several cases. PTI chief Gohar Ali Khan told ARY News that “June 11 is going to be an important day for both Khan and his wife,” but he gave no further reason. The IHC had earlier adjourned the matter after the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) asked for more time to prepare its arguments.

Gohar said the PTI will work with opposition parties to launch a movement led by the party’s founder from jail. He urged those parties to join “for the sake of the country's survival and security” and added that “The party will address a press conference on June 9 regarding it,” outlining plans for the forthcoming budget.

Last month Khan said he would direct the party’s protest campaign against the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N)-led coalition from prison. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Ali Amin Gandapur has warned of a full-scale movement for Khan’s release after Eid Al-Adha.

Khan, convicted in a few cases, continues to claim the 8 February 2023 general election saw the ‘Mother of All Rigging.’ He brands the PML-N and the Pakistan Peoples Party “mandate thieves.”

Special assistant to the prime minister on political affairs Rana Sanaullah on Saturday urged PTI to accept prime minister Shehbaz Sharif’s offer of talks and sit with the government to amend election laws.

Gohar said Bushra Bibi is being held without charges to pressure Khan and insisted no deals would be made for his release. He also dismissed reports of internal rifts within PTI.

The Al-Qadir Trust case centres on a 190 million Pound settlement reached by the United Kingdom’s National Crime Agency (NCA) with the family of property tycoon Malik Riaz. In August 2019 the NCA said it had frozen eight bank accounts containing 100 million pounds “suspected to have derived from bribery and corruption in an overseas nation.”

The agency informed the government then led by Khan’s PTI. It is alleged Khan asked his aide on accountability, Shehzad Akbar, to resolve the matter and that the frozen funds belonging to the national treasury were “settled” against Bahria Town’s liability.

Bahria Town Ltd, Riaz’s real-estate firm, was later found to have illegally acquired large tracts of land on Karachi’s outskirts. It donated hundreds of acres to the Al-Qadir Trust, whose only trustees are Khan and Bushra Bibi.

(With inputs from PTI)