Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi’s convictions overturned as Pakistan court orders for their immediate release

Former prime minister Imran Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, have been acquitted of unlawful marriage charges by a court in Pakistan.

Mr Khan, 71, and his wife were sentenced to seven years, days before Pakistan’s election in February.

The court ordered their immediate release from jail pending any outstanding charges.

Additional district and sessions judge in Islamabad, Afzal Majoka, announced his judgement at 3pm on Saturday, saying: “If they are not wanted in any other case, then PTI [Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf] founder Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi should be released [from jail] immediately.”

The couple was convicted on 3 February after a complaint from Bibi’s former husband, who claimed that her marriage to Mr Khan violated Muslim family law. According to Islamic law, a Muslim widow or a divorcee has to abide by the “iddah” – a waiting period – before they can lawfully enter into a new marriage. The judge in the case fined Mr Khan and Ms Bibi PKR500,000 (£1,420) and sentenced both to seven years in jail.

However, on Saturday, Mr Khan’s PTI party claimed that soon after the court verdict, Mr Khan was arrested in three other cases. The PTI claimed that this was “yet another gimmick” to keep the former prime minister in prison. His wife, though, will walk free soon, according to the PTI, as she has no other cases against her.

Mr Khan has been acquitted or granted bail on many of the most serious charges, all of which he claims are politically motivated. More recently, he was cleared of exposing state secrets for disclosing a diplomatic cable at a 2022 political rally. This ruling left his imprisonment contingent solely on a February conviction that his 2018 marriage to Bibi, 49, was un-Islamic and illegal.

This conviction was overturned on Saturday.

Syed Zulfikar Bukhari, a close aide of Khan and one of PTI’s most senior officials said: “The case has not only been thrown out, but the judge has also ordered for immediate release of Imran Khan and his wife Bushra Bibi.”

He added: “Had this case not been thrown out, this was a very dangerous case for all women of the country moving forward because a very dangerous precedent would have been set that any husband can get up at any time and call their marriage of their ex-wife illegal and there would be nothing to prove it otherwise.”

In the Quran, specific waiting periods are prescribed for women before they can remarry. A menstruating woman must observe three monthly cycles, whereas a non-menstruating woman is required to wait for three lunar months. Widows have a mandated waiting period of four months and ten days. These rules are intended to ensure clarity regarding paternity in case a woman becomes pregnant shortly before her separation from her spouse or his death.

Mr Khan, ousted as prime minister in 2022, has been held in prison since August 2023 when he was sentenced to three years in jail for allegedly hiding assets after selling state gifts. It led to a ban on Mr Khan from seeking political office and contesting the 8 February election, which his party says was rigged.

Mr Khan was acquitted in a case that accused him of leaking state secrets as well as a graft case, and remained behind bars only due to his conviction in the iddah case.

After Mr Khan was ousted from power through a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in 2022, he claimed a secret diplomatic cable proved that there was a US-led conspiracy with Pakistan’s military and opposition to remove him. State authorities accused Mr Khan of using the document for political purposes and not returning it, leading to a special court sentencing him to ten years in prison.

He was also sentenced to 14 years in jail in a case linked to the illegal selling of state gifts. Mr Khan and his wife denied the allegations and called them “politically motivated”.