Bushra Bibi’s sentence suspension plea dismissed by Pakistan court

The Federal Constitutional Court of Pakistan has dismissed a petition filed by Bushra Bibi seeking the suspension of her prison sentence in the Al-Qadir Trust corruption case. A two-member bench, led by Chief Justice Aminuddin Khan, ruled that because the main appeal is already pending, the court should prioritize an expeditious decision on that primary matter rather than proceeding with parallel hearings for sentence suspension.

Bushra Bibi, the wife of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, was previously sentenced to seven years in prison and fined Rs500,000 by an accountability court. The Al-Qadir Trust case involves allegations of corruption totaling approximately Rs50 billion (£190 million). The funds in question were reportedly retrieved by the UK’s National Crime Agency from assets belonging to property tycoon Malik Riaz and returned to the Pakistani government.

During the proceedings, legal counsel argued that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) had caused delays through repeated adjournments. The court condoned a 61-day delay in the filing of the appeal due to the petitioner’s incarceration at Adiala Jail but maintained that the complexity of the case did not justify interfering with the previous rejection of the suspension plea. The court directed that the Islamabad High Court should provide both parties a fair opportunity to present arguments during the main appeal.