Bushra Bibi, the wife of former Pakistani prime minister Imran Khan, has challenged her conviction with the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in the Toshakhana case, according to Dawn.
This is happening at the same time that Imran Khan sought the court on Saturday to overturn his convictions in the Toshakhana and Cypher cases.
In the Toshakhana case, an Accountability Court (AC) in Pakistan last month sentenced Imran and his spouse Bushra Bibi to 14 years in prison. A fine of Rs 1.54 billion was additionally levied.
Dawn claims that Bushra Bibi argued in her appeal that her conviction was the result of the “power corridors”.
She went on to say that Syed Inamullah Shah, a former comptroller in the Prime Minister’s Office, had made a “false statement” that served as the foundation for the conviction.
The prosecution claimed that the graft jewelry set was not deposited in Toshakhana, despite Imran Khan’s instruction to his military secretary to deposit it there, according to Bibi.
According to Dawn, she also asked the court to overturn the verdict and halt her sentence until her appeal was resolved.
In the meantime, Khan contended in his appeal that despite the guilty parties’ and their attorneys’ best efforts to cooperate with the court, the trial was carried out in a way that violated their fundamental right to a fair trial.
On January 29, nevertheless, Judge Bashir “suddenly and illegally” terminated the couple’s opportunity to cross-examine the prosecution’s witnesses.
Sardar Latif Khosa, Imran Khan’s lead attorney, was also running for office and had asked the Supreme Court and higher courts for a general adjournment. However, the trial court turned down his plea for a postponement.
Khan said in his appeal that Khosa’s replacement, Zaheer Abbas, was likewise not given a fair amount of time to prepare his arguments since the court was “under some undue pressure” to reach a decision by February 8.
